My objective is to attain 50:50 gender parity by 2023—FRANCO Principal

Hohoe (V/R), Feb. 16, GNA – Dr Adwoa Kwegyiriba, Principal of the St. Francis College of Education (FRANCO), Hohoe has said her objective for the College is to attain the gender parity of 50:50 by 2023 academic year.

She said the significance of the gender enrolment in 2022 was achieving one of the objectives of the College’s Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) strategic plan to attain 40 percent female enrolment by 2023.

Dr Kwegyiriba in her speech during the 15th Matriculation ceremony of the College, said the College received a total number of 1,582 applications for the 2021/2022 academic year out of which 1,219 qualified for admission.

“The College was able to admit only 524 and this represents 46.5 percent of qualified applicants. This includes 309 males representing 59 percent and 215 females representing 41 percent.”

Dr Kwegyiriba said out of the admitted students, 406 opted for the Junior High School Education Programme representing 77.5 percent and 118 for the Primary Education representing 22.5 percent.

She congratulated the students who were in the fourth batch of the Bachelor of Education Degree program. “Undoubtedly, your choice to study in this noble institution is a clear indication that you have confidence in the quality of teaching and learning being offered in this College. Thank you for reposing trust in us.”

Dr Kwegyiriba said the matriculation oath therefore requires the students to show maximum commitment in their academic and social lives and contribute their quota to promoting the image of the College.

She said Management was fully committed to providing everything the students needed to bring the best out of them and expressed the hope that they would give off their best and cooperate with Management of the College.

Dr Kwegyiriba said the College was making stringent efforts to stop the encroachment of school lands so that they could secure them to build more lodging facilities. She said the College was currently engaging with their developing partners to build a 1000 capacity hostel for students and had also written to some donor agencies to support in putting up an ultra-modern library that would support and enhance research activities.

Dr Kwegyiriba said Management was also working hard to transform the College’s dining hall system into a modern canteen system where students would have a variety of meals during breakfast, supper and lunch to choose from. She also touched on plans to deploy an enterprise system of internet connectivity to compliment what the College already had.

She said the security unit had come up with some security measures to curb all security related challenges while urging all to be vigilant and report suspicious characters to us for prompt actions.

GNA