A Queensland academic has criticised Education Queensland's decision to remove home economics from its senior syllabus from the end of next year.

CQUniversity home economics lecturer Jay Deagon said home economics was unique in that it was hands-on and focused on the wellbeing of individuals and families in their everyday life.

Key points: Home economics will be removed from senior syllabus at the end of 2018

Home economics will be removed from senior syllabus at the end of 2018 Subject will be replaced by food and nutrition unit

Subject will be replaced by food and nutrition unit Critics are concerned students will not be taught valuable practical skills

"I fear we are losing a grip on what is important for the youth of Australia to know and do," Dr Deagon said.

From 2019, senior students will no longer be able to study the subject.

Instead, it will be replaced by a food and nutrition unit, due to new tertiary entrance qualifications.

"We are heading more and more towards teaching 'subjects', not 'humans'," Dr Deagon said.

She said she was concerned students were not getting exposure to the multiple disciplines available, and this would impact on their passions.

England and Ireland removed home economics from their curriculum a few years ago and were now reinstating it because of the obesity crisis there, she said.

"They've seen that it was quite a considerable mistake to take home economics out of their curriculum," Dr Deagon said.

Change inevitable for 21st century learners

Maria Learmonth teaches senior home economics at Emmaus College in Rockhampton, central Queensland, and is philosophical about the change.

"I think change is inevitable," she said.

"We have 21st century learners and they will be flexible and resilient enough to manage it all."

Although students will have the choice of hospitality or fashion design, the change means the demise of what makes home economics unique.

"The individuals, families and communities aspect of the subject won't be encompassed by either of those," Ms Learmonth said.

Emmaus College Year 11 students Flynn Phelan, Rebecca Carter, Mikaly Smith and Rebekah Gleeson-Cherry, with teacher Maria Learmonth. ( ABC Capricornia: Inga Stünzner )

"We think that aspect is so important because it's about families, it's about relationships, it's about communication and conflict resolution, it's about values that we have in family life.

"We know that families are the central unit of our society, so we currently embed some of that information into the food units and into the textiles units, so we do look at the family and the role it plays when we teach food and textiles."

Students get a lot out of subject

Year 11 Emmaus College students Flynn Phelan, Mikaly Smith, Rebekah Gleeson-Cherry and Rebecca Carter will be among the last of Queensland's senior students to take home economics as a subject.

"I like the textiles more than the cooking, but the families and relationships bringing down generations of cooking and the sewing kind of just brings us all together," Rebekah said.

Mikaly said she liked home economics because students got to look at sewing and food and how it worked with the family.

"We get to do hands-on work, so we get to cook food as well as learn to make different things with sewing," she said.

For Rebecca, home economics meant learning about other people.

"I like home economics because you can learn about all the different cultures and how they respect their food, and what's special to them with all the textiles and what they do differently," she said.

As for Flynn, "What I like about home economics is that we experience different amounts of cooking and what we do is different to everything else."

"Plus you get to eat what you cook," he said