Dr Patrick Awuah, Founder and President of Ashesi University, said at the weekend that 50 per cent of students to be admitted into the university’s faculty of engineering would be females.
“The aim of adding engineering to the curricular of Ashesi is to have 50 per cent of its students being females who are ready to be part of the one per cent engineers who build the world for the remaining 99 per cent,” he said.
He said it is time women are given the platform to take up challenging courses and careers to help boost their intellectuals and work assiduously towards the development of their countries.
Dr Awuah made the remarks at the ground-breaking ceremony for work to start on the construction of the Ashesi Faculty Engineering.
He said the university would continue to have world-class facilities that would inspire and continue to be the top growth potential significant institution not only in Ghana but Africa at large.
He called on women and stakeholders to help young ladies see engineering as a course that is of great importance to their countries.
Mrs Eunice Britwum, Chief Executive Officer of CENIT Energy, said the role of engineers is critical in meeting the Millennium Development Goal.
She said engineers are responsible for technological advancement of every country with Ghana not being an exception.
She noted that, with the technological improvement increasing at a higher pace, women in engineering are decreasing in Ghana.
Mrs Britwum however advised that the scope of engineering should be widened and opened to women to help fight the canker.
She lauded Ashesi University for the tremendous step taken in projecting women for the sector.
Mrs Carlien Bou-Chedid, Ghana Institute of Engineering and Women in Engineering Ghana said Ghana needs more women in engineering.
She called on all parents to condition the minds of their daughters at an early stage for them to have interest in arithmetics.
“The kind of toys you give your children to play should have all these thoughts in mind,” she added.
She said the potential engineers are mostly lost at the basic levels of their education due to how teachers put fear in them mostly during mathematics and science classes.
She called for simple tools in achieving abstract learning.
Nana Oteng Korankyi, Chief of Berekuso expressed excitement about Ashesi’s initiative and called on the university to do more in boosting education in the country as well as Africa and beyond.
Ashesi University is a co-educational institution whose goal is to educate African leaders of exceptional integrity and professional ability.
