Female professors at KNUST want more women scientists nurtured

Kumasi, June 10, GNA - The Africa Hall of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), has launched its Golden Jubilee celebration in Kumasi.

It used the opportunity to admonish stakeholders to create the needed opportunities for more women scientists to be nurtured, which is critical to improve the labour capacity and human resource base of the nation for accelerated socio-economic growth.

The call was made by three female scientists of the University - Professor Mrs Esi Awuah, Prof Mrs Margaret Frempong and Prof Mrs Frances Owusu- Daaku, who are all currently spearheading development of the nation in various capacities.

Africa Hall, one of the elite all-female hall of residence to be established in Ghana, was constructed some five decades ago, and had since produced renowned career women and technocrats, including former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings.

'50 Years of Women Education and Empowerment in Nation Building,' is the theme for the celebration.

Prof Awuah, of the KNUST Department of Civil Engineering, and also a Foundation Vice-Chancellor of the University of Energy and Natural Resources, proposed to the University authorities to strive to begin the processes of introducing entrepreneurial and vocational courses in their curricular.

This, she said, would help empower women graduates, in particular, by equipping them with practical hands-on skills in the other fields of endeavours such as carpentry, hairdressing, embroidery, plumbing, amongst others, for their own benefit.

'Career women are not only supposed to be trained for academic purposes, but also to be able to venture into and make the necessary impact in areas considered to be male-dominated,' she observed.

Prof Awuah challenged female graduates to be more innovative and creative in order to ensure their survival in an era where unemployment had become a major issue.

Prof Frempong, a Lecturer at the KNUST School of Medical Sciences, giving statistics of female admissions at the KNUST, said there had been considerable progress in more women being trained as technocrats and scientists.

The University, from its admission of less than a hundred female students in the 1968/69 academic year, had made some progress, and admitting more than 15, 000 female students for various courses of studies in the last two academic years.

Prof Owusu-Daaku, also a former President of the Christian Service University College, lauded the founding fathers of the KNUST, for their vision in establishing an all-female hall of residence, which had over the years seen to the training of women of substance to aid the nation's development aspirations.

Dr Marian Asantewah Nkansah, the Africa Hall Warden, and a Lecturer of the Department of Chemistry, KNUST, said the 50 years anniversary was an important milestone in the annals of the Hall, and as such a number of activities had been lined up, including erection of a statue in memory of the first Warden, Prof Tamakloe.

There are also plans to commence work on the renovation of the Hall in order to put it in good shape.

Dr Nkansah said as part of the anniversary the Hall would make a donation to the Paediatric Cancer Unit of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, launching of a history book, organisation of excellence awards, fun games and thanksgiving service, while a girls' summit would be held to enable career women mentor the young ones.

GNA

By Stephen Asante, GNA