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{
    "id": 1057572,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1057572/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 361,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba North, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Odhiambo-Mabona",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 376,
        "legal_name": "Millie Grace Akoth Odhiambo Mabona",
        "slug": "millie-odhiambo-mabona"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I rise to support the mediated version of this Bill. The ECD is the basic foundation for children. If we get the foundation right, just like the other Members are saying, children will develop well. Unfortunately, we have, as a country, not put a lot of emphasis on ECD. It reminds me of a time when I was in high school and there was this girl who used to do very well in Maths, but would not do well in any other subject. She had transferred to our school. You would discover that even though she was a very sharp girl, the foundations were started wrongly. So, she eventually failed, not because she was not sharp, but because she was not taught very basic things like language. That is why I am always passionate about this thing of standardising language even from the ECD level. If you go to my rural area, you will find children in ECD being taught about Ombete Kamatoso who went to carry fish from the market while the children in Nairobi are being taught about computers and digital things. In the end, they will be going to do an exam not about Ombete Kamatoso, but about computers and science and art. If you want children to compete in an equal platform, there must be need not just to provide infrastructure that this Bill seeks to have, but to also standardise teaching. So, even though this Bill is emphasising a lot the role of the counties, it must also standardise the teaching of ECD so that what the child is being taught in Nairobi must also be taught to a child in Takawiri Island in my constituency. The other issue I would want to raise is that ECD is also very important and I am glad, for instance, we have provided for the non-discrimination clause, especially for girls. You will find that many young girls at that age in rural areas are made to do tasks such as taking care of children and they lose out and start out late. When children start out late, again, they lose out a lot. A lot of children then start coming in at primary level when others have actually found out the foundational issues that are needed. One of the issues that I do not know how I missed out is that even if you look at the Constitution, the first principle that should be there for children is the best interest of the child. So, whatever policy or laws that are passed should be done in the best interest of a child. That has not been done. One of the things that I would want to also indicate, especially if we pass the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), we trust that it will pass, is that the focus of the counties should then be on areas of the county. Sometimes you find that we compete with counties in areas that are national Government oriented. If the counties were to focus on their areas of expertise, we would change the face of most educational facilities. The ECD centres should be better even than primary schools The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}