It's a huge blow for Maitland Showground manager Brett Gleeson who has organised a range of educational displays including science experiments that allow teachers to tick off mandatory parts of the curriculum.

He said the show offered a wide range of learning opportunities in one location including lessons about bees, beekeeping and pollination, animal critique and science, to name a few.

He said it was the city's biggest agriculture event of the year and he couldn't believe schools hadn't rushed in to take advantage of the program and the free entry.

"I tried very hard last year to engage the schools and be proactive and be ahead of the game but that hasn't happened to the extent that I wanted it to happen," he said.

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"It's very dependent on the individual teacher, they have to be motivated to bring them to the show and often the teachers don't know they are at that school next year or what class they are on. It's a missed opportunity."

Mr Gleeson said he deliberately linked parts of the show with the school curriculum in a bid to increase student attendance.

"I was trying to tell them that they can tick off things in the curriculum and they don't have to set them up themselves, it's done for them," he said.

Mr Gleeson, a goat breeder, said the show connected suburban students with life on the land.

"It's as close to a real life experience as you can get. There are things you'll learn here that you wouldn't learn in a text book or online. It's very educational."

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Mr Gleeson has also tried to encourage the city's preschools to enter the scarecrow and colouring-in competitions and hoped the entries would flow.

Mr Gleeson said the show's theme was Celebrating our Youth and the student competitors - particularly in the cattle and horse judging competitions - would be the only youth representatives.

"We have about 120 school kids who come to compete in the cattle program on the Friday," he said.