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{
    "id": 1247236,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1247236/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 1651,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nyando, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Jared Okello",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. In the course of our recess which just ended, while I was going round Nyando Constituency, I was confronted by very ugly scenes around the Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) education. It is good to note that even though we birthed JSS during the last regime, the approach that has been employed by this regime has not been anything to write home about. Classes were built in secondary schools and this regime chose to have our children continue learning in their primary schools even though they are in JSS. We have a big shortage of classrooms in these schools yet the classes where they should be carrying out their studies are left in secondary schools. This regime ought to have looked at this thing in depth before making that decision to continue having them in their existing primary schools. This creates an imbalance. You have very young children in Standard Seven wearing trousers and blazers amidst other students who are putting on shorts. Those who are in Standard Eight are putting on shorts yet the juniors in Class Seven are putting on trousers and blazers. This kind of imbalance ought not to have taken shape and that is why the drafters of the JSS section so chose to have them go to high school where everybody else is dressed just like them. I noted with great dismay that even though there are 14 compulsory subjects and eight other elective subjects — so a total of 22 — only one teacher is plugged into a JSS. Even if you are a genius for heaven’s sake, you cannot teach 22 subjects. This is something that has to be properly looked into. When this regime chose to have 35,000 additional teachers to primary schools, I had thought that they were going to be sane enough amidst insanity, to have these teachers go to JSS. There is a great shortage in those schools. Besides the fact that there are certain subjects that call for laboratories, there are no laboratories in all these schools. You have children undertaking theory lessons without practicals. This is total disarray of our education system. Amidst all this disorganisation, they are also expected to pay Ksh11,000 dubbed lunch money. It is good to have lunch in school because lunch probably is the only meal that these children can have in a day amidst the poverty that has permeated our systems, but you have children who cannot afford Ksh11,000, and yet they are forced to pay that kind of money. You ask yourself what happened. Just the other year, they were running back home to eat and go back to school in the afternoon. Now, parents are being forced to chuck out Ksh11,000 every year. Our NG-CDF system has not given us regulations to go down deep into Standard Six or Seven. As I was walking around my constituency, I was being confronted by these facts to have these children put under the category of NG-CDF under bursary. I told them we cannot do that because our regulations do not allow us to do so. It is a total mess and I wish at one point in time this House will come to make a decision around JSS. If it is not addressed in good time, I am very afraid that we are losing a generation, academically speaking. If we lose an entire generation, thousands of students, what will happen to them few years to come? My kid in Standard Seven will be asking me, “Dad, you saw this happening and you never raised any alarm.” At least I will be vindicated by this debate, that I 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."
}