Pearl, the SRC President of UEW

Story: Salome Donkor

IN SPITE of her failure to realise her ambition to become a parliamentarian in 2004, following her defeat in the parliamentary elections, Ms Pearl Akua Agyeman still maintains high spirits.
She lost the Kpone-Katamanso seat, which she contested as an independent candidate, to Mr Joseph Nii Laryea Afotey-Agbo of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Pearl, as she is affectionately called, continues to aspire for leadership position, and takes inspiration from the popular saying that “when one door is closed, many more are opened”. She has therefore worked hard to achieve positive results. She was elected President of the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) of the University of Education, Winneba in April, 2007.
Pear is the first female SRC President of the university, which was established as the University College of Education in September 30, 1992 as a result of the government’s Tertiary Education Reform programme launched in 1988 alongside the educational reforms at the basic and senior secondary levels.
With her election, Pearl became the second female SRC President of the country’s public universities after Louise Carol Serwaah Donkor, who was elected the first female SRC President of the University of Ghana Legon, the country’s premier university.
Pearl described the campaign prior to her election as hectic, saying that she contested the position with three men.
She said her 44 per cent votes could not secure her the win, but she pooled 68 per cent in the run-off.
With an eight-member executive, including a female treasurer, the SRC of the university has set up a welfare fund and is undertaking a hostel project with funds from a development levy being paid by the students. The SRC is also undertaking an electricity project by providing solar panels to serve the Central Campus.
She appealed for support from public-spirited individuals and organisations to complete the projects.
Born some 40 years ago, Pearl, a professional teacher, started her primary education at Pai-Katanga in the Volta Region, from where she continued to the Dambai Training College. She had been a teacher over the past 20 years and had thought at schools in Ashaiman and Michele Camp.
She is a Level 300 student at the University of Education, offering a degree programme in Early Childhood Care and Development.
She contended that women had the capabilities to participate in active politics, win elections and make impact in the lives of the people, but maintained that the quota system was necessary to get more women elected and called on political parties to field more women in areas considered as their strongholds.
Pearl was, however, not happy with the attitude of women who regarded certain areas as the preserve of men and discouraged their counterparts from venturing into such area. She said to change this, there was the need for a sustained educational campaign, which should start from the pre-school level to make the girl-child understand and accept the fact that women were helpers and not lesser human beings.
“After all, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a woman, who is ruling Liberia, a war-torn country,” she said.