The Deputy Western Regional Minister, Mrs. Gifty E. Kusi, has commended the College of Distance Education (CoDE) for creating opportunity for more women to access tertiary education.

“Distance Education especially that of College of Distance Education-University of Cape Coast has made it possible to bring education to the doorsteps of all and being helpful in maximizing the economic wealth of the country.”

Mrs. Kusi commended CoDE when she delivered a speech at the 4th Biennial   Women’s conference of the Distance Education Students’ Association (DESAG) in Takoradi which was on the theme “Empowering Women for Effective productivity for National Development through Distance Education”.

The Deputy Minister said in currently, “Distance Education has come out as an advantage to women to furnish them through acquisition of knowledge, leading towards new ways of thinking and to be autonomous and liberated”

Mrs. Kusi noted that gender inequality was a serious problem for all developing countries, where majority of women had suffered from social, cultural, political and environmental impacts of development. “Lack of education for more women in our society is the most vital cause behind these inequalities” she said.

In order to bridge the gap of access between men and women in terms of education, Mrs. Kusi said “Government, through our tertiary institutions explores the use of Distance Education to provide education at large scale for individuals in order to help the marginalized groups, we, women who cannot cope up with regular campus based learning because of our productive and reproductive roles”.

In a speech delivered her on behalf, the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Hon. Otiko Afisah Djaba, said the Government of Ghana has recognised that women’s economic and political empowerment were core developmental objectives which could enhance productivity and improve development outcomes for the next generation. “Without educating and empowering women in all aspects of our social, economic and political life, it is virtually impossible to tap their full potentials for growth and prosperity in society,” she added.

Ms. Djaba said her ministry had developed five key policy initiatives to guide the process towards gender equality and women and girls’ empowerment and these include; “the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty, LEAP1000 to improve the living conditions of pregnant women; award of scholarships to brilliant but needy girls in tertiary institutions to study technical and science related programmes.”

Others are “mentorship programmes for young girls in deprived communities; training of head potters in various vocational skills and senitisation programmes on women’s empowerment and their sexual and reproductive health rights.”

The Chief of Essipon, Nana Abuan V, said the uniqueness of Distance Education as women empowerment strategy could be seen from the fact that it had affected so many facets of the social system. She advised the women to study well and indicated that “we are never second class citizens; we can also build a nation through knowledge acquired from distance education”.

Present at the function was the Provost of CoDE, Prof. Isaac Galyuon, Ag. College Registrar, Mr. Opoku Oku-Afari and some senior members of the University.