The Ghana Trade Union Congress (TUC) on Sunday called on government to provide more educational infrastructure, to promote teaching and learning and making education accessible to many more children especially the girl- child.
It said scholarship schemes should be fashioned out for girls who take up science and technical subjects as a means of bridging the gender gap in the pursuit of the two courses.
A statement issued in Accra by Mr Kofi Asamoah, Secretary General, TUC on the occasion of the International Women’s Day, noted that despite the widespread claim that all people have equal rights to education, millions of children
especially girls do not have access to primary education especially in the rural areas.
The day is on the theme: “Equal Access to Education,Training, Science and Technology: Pathway to Decent Work for Women”.
“It is estimated that over 960 million adults in the world are illiterate and more than two-thirds of them are women, a fact which poses tremendous obstacles to their advancement,” the
statement said.
“The union congratulates all women globally, particularly Ghanaian women on the occasion of this year’s International Women’s Day celebration which falls on March 8.”
The statement acknowledged the many years of selfless and dedicated contributions by Ghanaian women towards the development of the country.
It said majority of women in the society continue to live in miserable circumstances and they constitute the greater proportion of those trapped in the poverty web.
It said the major factor responsible for this unacceptable situation was the challenge women face in gaining access to education.
The statement said since the implementation of the “Send Your Girl Child to School” programme in the country, the enrolment rate of female students have been growing exponentially greater than male students both in primary and junior high levels.
“Every tertiary female enrolment is higher in the so called ‘feminine’ courses, despite the absence of any known educational policy limiting female enrolment in the science and Technology.”
The TUC urged women to harness the vast amount of information available in the era of Information, Communication and Technology, venture into the sphere of science and technology and continue to develop themselves adequately to
meet the challenges in the world of work.
It expressed the hope that women and men would continue to unite at this stage of democratic dispensation to end all forms of discrimination against women and ensure fairness and equal opportunities for all.