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"id": 1380652,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1380652/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Ezekiel Machogu",
"speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Education",
"speaker": {
"id": 13458,
"legal_name": "Ezekiel Machogu Ombaki",
"slug": "ezekiel-machogu-ombaki"
},
"content": "disbursed, being limited as they are, to schools across the country based on an infrastructure needs assessment, equitable distribution and availability of funds. Schools with poor infrastructure that seek to benefit from those funds should request the Ministry of Education through the Sub-County Directors of Education. The applications detail the infrastructure conditions of the school, the enrollment, and the estimates of the infrastructure needs. Additional supporting documents such as Bills of Quantities, assessment reports, recommendations and photographs may also be provided. The Boards of Management should also provide minutes indicating the infrastructure needs. Those applications are then forwarded to the Ministry for consideration. A school could be allocated funds if the Ministry determines a justifiable need and the school deserves the requested intervention, subject to the availability of funds. In determining the allocation of funds, the Ministry seeks to ensure that the resources are equally distributed, noting the different levels of school infrastructure development and enrolment in the various parts of the country. Other than the preceding criteria, some schools are also funded under the Emergency Response Fund if natural or human calamities have befallen them. Such schools may make an appropriate application for consideration, or the Ministry may identify them through its field officers. We also try to ensure that projects in schools funded under this particular program are completed. This financial year, I am sure Hon. Members are aware, we did put up a case saying that part of the infrastructure funds that were to come to the Ministry be forwarded to the NG- CDF because they have a better structure and system to implement some of the things that we are not able to do. Following that, Ksh3.39 billion, which was supposed to be allocated to the Ministry, was taken to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs. We are trying to make sure that the money is released to you so that we can start putting up the 6,000 schools. We are working against time. We recommended that it be released as a conditional grant. We sat down and came up with a criterion for allocating money to each constituency based on enrolment and the number of schools in each constituency. We submitted the criterion through the Departmental Committee on Education so that everything is split and categorised into each level. Every Member should now know what amount of money they get. Hon. Deputy Speaker, we have to make a special consideration for some counties like Nairobi County, which is in a very pathetic situation, because the private sector is running the education sector. The 17 Members of Parliament from Nairobi County know that, out of over 1,000 schools in the county, over 800 are private schools, some of which are in very pathetic conditions. The motivating factor for one to start a private school is the element of profit. However, the schools I am referring to charge Ksh1,000 and therefore, the quality of education is not as good. We also found out that Nairobi County is badly hit in terms of capacity, unlike other parts of the country. Therefore, we allocated a special infrastructure grant of Ksh1 billion to Nairobi County. Each of the 17 constituencies in Nairobi County is set to get Ksh58 million to create capacity because, as I had alluded to earlier, the situation in primary and secondary schools is pathetic. We want to see how we can progressively remedy the situation in Nairobi County before moving to other cities. Those who were in Mombasa County on Monday know that the situation there is no better. They are also experiencing the same problems. Hon. Deputy Speaker, I will go to the second Question on special schools so that Members can ask other questions. First, I would like to inform Members about the number of special needs education schools in the country, before I answer the Question. There are 2,892 day primary special needs education schools in the country with an enrollment of 117,565 learners. There are 337 boarding primary special needs education schools with a total enrolment of 43,266 learners. There are 81 secondary special needs education schools with a total enrolment of 7,064 learners. There are 134 junior school special needs education 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"
}