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{
    "id": 1197240,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1197240/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 126,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Lurambi, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Titus Khamala",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "taken to different locations. These teachers suffer from financial constraints because they are not adequately paid by TSC to be able to afford renting separate houses. When I was growing up, teachers were the people who made our society what it was then. They were the people who were running the economy—they were employers, great stakeholders and would plan for the society, community and villages. They were the guests of honour at any given fundraising in the community. When teachers are delocalised, we do not think of their being worried about their spouses. Think about delocalising a 50-year-old man, a respected grandfather who has been operating from his home where he has cows, to a place where he lives in a single room behind shops while cooking for himself. You find a man moved from Kakamega to Siaya, Eldoret or Ukambani where they have to rent a room. The TSC has broken marriages. The TSC has destroyed families. It is important for us to realise that when families are broken, a nation is broken. The family is the fabric that holds a country together. You find a 58-year-old man taken to another county and he has to cook and fend for himself. Soon a young woman finds her way into the life of this old man and he will start a new family just two years to retirement, not because it is something he wanted to do but because of the circumstances. Challenges of cooking and looking for vegetables distracts a once stable family. Some homes look like museums because they have been deserted. If we are thinking about service delivery, performance, quality and excellence in education, we must think about the welfare of the teacher first. We know teachers can teach anywhere. As a Kenyan, if you are employed by the Government, you can work from any station in this country. However, when we look at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) laws that are governing teaching as a practice, it is supposed to be local and culture based. Hon. Speaker, it has been hell on earth for teachers since the inception of delocalisation in 2018. This exercise was undertaken by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) without any consultation and public participation which abuses the Constitution. We know very well that public participation is key to any reform, policy making and implementation. Before we implement and make changes, we have to consult and talk to stakeholders. I beg this House to consider this issue of delocalisation. We do not want to do what I would say a plastic undertaking. We have to do something holistic to ensure that teachers do not live in fear. Our teachers should not be working in environments where they are thinking this is October and do not know where they will go in January. We do not want a situation whereby the Teachers Service Commission treats teachers as if they are objects of work. The Teachers Service Commission ought to respect and treat teachers as human beings. The Teachers Service Commission has to respect families and has to realise that it is not just about deployment and sending teachers to work but the welfare of the children, learners and students. Some teachers teach in hostile environments. For instance, you find there is a principal that has been removed from a school and a new principal is posted but the community rejects him. That principal cannot land in that station because perhaps the former principal was performing but the new one who has been brought has a history of non-performance. I have seen schools where parents have marched to the school to evict the principal and the pupils were cheering. It was like a political rally and I was just wondering what we are putting our children through. What kind of investment are we making in our children if we cannot teach them to respect their teachers? Teachers are humiliated because they are not accepted. It will take a delocalised teacher a year to learn the local language and culture. We know that English and Kiswahili are the national languages. Our mother tongues, the first language in the rural constituencies, help us to develop a child. For a child who has been raised by a mother and a father who have never gone to school, perhaps their mother tongue could be the only language they speak. You find 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."
}