By
Mildred Siabi-Mensah /Crossland Agyemang
Effia (WR), Oct. 01, GNA – The Takoradi
Technical University Chapter of Women in Technology, Education Development, (WITED)
has been inaugurated with a call on stakeholders to support the girl child to
pursue programmes in Science, Technology, Environment and Mathematics (STEM).
The girl child when encouraged to pursue
programmes in STEM would contribute meaningfully to the advancement of
societies.
Issues of gender mainstreaming into male
dominated fields have become topical in recent times that harnessing and
leveraging on their benefits have been so important that policy makers and
parents have given the girl child the right footings in breaking barriers in
the areas of STEM.
Professor Smile Dzisi, President of WITED,
Western and Central Africa inaugurating the Technical University Chapter in
Takordai said harnessing equity called for support and breaking socio cultural
boundaries whiles ensuring adequate exposure of the girl child to this male
dominated sectors.
The inauguration was on the theme “Harnessing
Technical and Vocational Education to Enhance Gender Equity for National
Development”.
In Ghana, Technical Vocational Education and
Training (TVET) systems are often gender-biased, affecting men and women’s
access to specific learning programmes or occupations. Such gender divisions
contribute to the perpetuation of gender inequalities at work and society at large.
Professor Dzisi who is also the Vice
Chancellor of Koforidua Technical University noted the UNESCO Institute for
Statistics has estimated the percentage of female students worldwide in
vocational programmes to be 44 percent, the Ghana Education Sector Performance
Report issued in 2015 also indicates that gender parity in TVET was weakening
as it had fallen from 50% in the 2009/2010 academic year to 29% in 2015, a
worry trend, she expressed.
She said the ILO World Employment Social
Outlook 2015, showed that women continued to suffer from higher rates of
unemployment were less likely to participate in the labour force and face
higher risks of vulnerable employment.
She stressed it was widely recognised that
TVET could contribute to equity by enabling individuals to access the labour
market, livelihood and lifelong learning opportunities.
“We need a deliberate and conscious effort to
change things and make diverse leadership possible for better nation building.”
She said WITED would work to step up interest
of girls in the basic, Senior and even tertiary institutions to choose
programmes in the science and with the requisite support and enabling
environment, they would be able to contribute meaningfully to decision making
for progress.
Professor Frank John Eshun, the Vice
Chancellor of the University, encouraged a strong advocacy for many more women
in TVET education to realise more opportunities.
“We need a gender responsive strategy, since
educating a woman transcend beyond herself to many individuals and
generation…we at the university are ready to work to support many more women to
enrol in the subject area.”
Nana Akua Birmeh, an Architect, noted that
achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), called for hard work to have
more women in industry and manufacturing sectors.
Dr Eudora Hagan, the Chapter President pledged
their commitment to ensure increased awareness on TVET education and its
bearings on development and the need for the country to pay attention to the
sector.
GNA