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{
    "id": 1214083,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1214083/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 128,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Emurua Dikirr, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Johana Kipyegon",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "When we talk about accessing the free primary education, it has to be completely free, accessible, reachable and of quality. Among the many issues that we have in our schools that cause our pupils or students drop out of school; and I have taken time to do my assessment, is because of the payments which schools may be demanding from parents. That is one of the biggest cause of school dropouts. As Members of this House, legislators and representatives of people, we must take time to ensure we make education affordable, reachable and reduce the number of dropouts which is avoidable. There are situations which cause students to drop out of schools which are unavoidable in terms of cost. We should take time as a House to ensure that we make it affordable and accessible to everybody. The introduction of 100 per cent transition has gone a long way but the major impediment is the payments which we are asking these people to make. Another issue is the introduction of the Junior Secondary School (JSS). It is another opportunity because we are reducing the number of years in secondary schools and bringing them to primary. The reason was cost. This was meant to ensure parents will not incur the cost of students travelling to and fro distant schools or even buy uniform and all those kind of stuff. All these are geared towards reducing the cost of education. The idea of uniforms which Mhe. Wamuchomba has brought as a Motion is vital. We not only need to look at how we should standardise uniforms… I have also heard Members speak about the fact that uniforms make one look different from the rest and so on and so forth. We need to make our students feel that they are all equal so that some do not feel they are more inferior or superior than the rest. The reason we introduced one uniformed bus colour was so that we make all the schools uniform so that we can identify that this bus belongs to a school. We also need to standardise school uniform with the only different thing being the badge. Let every school come up with a badge, just like all the school buses on the road are yellow. But the name of the school is what differentiates one from the other. What is wrong with that? No school is feeling inferior even if their bus is long and the other one is short. Everybody knows that this is a school bus. Let us standardise the uniforms and make them the same colour. If it is shorts; if it is long trousers, just make them standard and let us move away from schools where Form I students used to put on shorts. That is primitive. Let us make our children feel beautiful and handsome with good trousers and good shirts. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I support fully. Let us have the same uniform. Sweaters should be one colour; shirts should be one colour and trousers should be one colour. What is wrong with uniformity? Somebody is saying that we need to have so many colours so that people can look beautiful. They will still look beautiful. We are in ties and ties are part of uniform. We should be in suits, although they are not of the same colour. But look at the orderlies in the House. We are all in one uniform. So, why are we having our orderlies in the same attire. I support this Motion that says we need to have standardised set of uniforms. Hon. Temporary Speaker, uniforms help us to identify students. I remember when I was a student, I would wear my uniform until I get home. One of the reasons was to show people that I am in school. Secondly, we also had to show the badge that was on our uniforms. I was in Maseno School and you know at that time it was the only national school. We felt proud and happy. Uniforms are supposed to identify our children so that even if you find a student at the bus stage stranded because of lack of bus fare, you will know that this is a student or pupil. You can then help them by paying for their transport home. Sometimes, some bad people would like to do bad things to students but, if they are not in uniform, they may fall victim. If they are in uniform, of course, the society will protect them. Lastly, I would like to weigh in on the issue of the payments that we normally do in schools. Remember, I have had a lot of running battles, especially with Ministry of Education and, of course, the Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC). My major concern is the payments 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."
}