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{
    "id": 1214093,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1214093/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 138,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Emuhaya, ANC",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Omboko Milemba",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "What is the history of school uniform? School uniform can be traced back to England where poor students were taken by the Church to a school called the Christian Boarding School, and they were given some sort of uniform which was close to what the clergy was wearing. I think that is where the history of school uniforms sprung from. It went to America and later arrived in Kenya with colonisation. Have we done any studies on school uniform? Yes. The African Journal took the specific study on school uniform. The case study was in Lang’ata, and they produced about fourteen good reasons why school uniform should be in place. Hon. Temporary Speaker, who are the leaders in Kenya who have pronounced themselves on school uniforms? You should quickly trace the late Hon. Mutula Kilonzo, the then Minister of Education, who appeared in the Press and talked about school skirts. The cartoonists of that time cartooned him in standard skirts that students were expected to wear. Hon. Gathoni Wamuchomba should listen to this. He thought there must be a certain length of the school skirts and the uniforms. The other leader who pronounced himself on this matter is the late Former President, Hon. Mwai Kibaki. He ordered that all schools must wear a certain uniform. This is our history of school uniforms. We need to look at the word standardisation so that it should not be mistaken for colour or the quality of uniforms to be worn in schools. Standardisation has a lot to do with the price of school uniforms, because this is a barrier to education and it must, therefore, be dealt with. If we can standardise the price of school uniforms, then we will be sorting out this gap that has been created. Again, we must look at how the Kenyan economy operates. Our economy is supposed to be free and liberal. Therefore, as we standardise, we cannot afford to give this to only a group of people. We should possibly allow a free market for uniforms so that their price is controlled by forces of demand and supply. That way, it will be easy to level the price. The other alternative would be for the Government to provide school uniforms. It is the Government’s business to make sure that all the students are in school. This is possible so that within the capitation we send to schools – I heard one Member speak on this – there will be a certain amount of money specifically meant for uniforms. The uniforms will be of particular type in terms of quality and price. With this, no student in Kenya will be chased out of school because of school uniforms. This issue is also embarrassing my teachers. Members are addressing teachers as though they are the ones who determine uniforms in schools. School uniforms are determined by the boards of management and parent-teachers associations, in the presence of teachers. What has happened – and it is not amusing – is that the education system has been completely abandoned to teachers. Nobody wants to take responsibility. We only want to point out the wrongs that are happening in our schools; for instance, that there is no food. No Government agency is taking accountability of the lack of food or lack of teachers for junior secondary in our schools. How can a government that is supposed to provide free and compulsory education send one teacher to teach a whole class of junior secondary school, while disregarding the curriculum-based establishment and say that everything is good? When the teachers go ahead to hire BoM and PTA teachers and money is charged, we say the teachers are the problem. We must deal with the matter of school uniforms alongside other challenges in the schools and decide whether, as a Government, we want to invest in education or in roads, railways and other infrastructure that compete for resources with schools. My take would be for us to develop the future, we must invest in our children. So, let us provide school uniforms as part of the requirements for schools. During President Moi’s time, there was cost sharing. Hon. Members, where we are now, we do not have free and compulsory education in Kenya. What we have is cost sharing. If we have cost sharing and we cannot speak on it, it means we are not taking our responsibility seriously. It is high time we declare that education is cost shared and we know what part the parent plays and what part the Government plays. However, what we require in law is for 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."
}