Koforidua, Aug. 13, GNA - Miss Jane Kwapong, Eastern Regional Director of the Department of Women has commended very old women in the country who enrolled for functional literacy classes so as to become meaningful participants in the society.

She said the achievement of women such as the 80-year-old Madam Edith Kummea of Adukrom Akuapem, who had enrolled in a literacy programme and participated in the first ever regional literacy competition in Koforidua, was heart-warming.

Speaking at a reading and writing competition in Koforidua on Wednesday, Miss Kwapong urged women who were yet to join the classes to do so in order to develop their intellectual abilities to ensure a successful integration into all aspects of society.

The competition, held under the aegis of the Functional Literary Programme of the Non-Formal Education Division (NFED) of the Education Ministry, seeks to equip the learners with handy literacy skills in the areas of reading, writing, numeric development and income generating activities. Miss Kwapong hailed the founding fathers of the programme and said the participation of many people, hitherto illiterates, was ample testimony of the power of education to transform and make all citizens of the state productive. Miss Ruth Naa Korkor Hughes, Deputy Director of the NFED in charge of Materials Development, said more that 2.2 million Ghanaians had benefited from the programme since its inception in 1992. She said majority of the beneficiaries had been women and urged the communities to encourage them to ensure that they used the skills gained. Mr Lawson Sakah, Acting Regional Director of the NFED, said there were 1,244 classes with 31,662 learners of which 10, 263 were males and 21,399 females. Miss Comfort Nyarko emerged as the winner of the competition and received books and other learning materials as her prize. 13 Aug. 08