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"speaker_name": "Hon. Ezekiel Machogu",
"speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Education",
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"legal_name": "Ezekiel Machogu Ombaki",
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"content": "The Member for Nakuru Town West, Hon. Arama, asked a question on schools denying students their certificates. It is in the Order Paper and I will answer it at the right time. The Member for Kilgoris asked a question on the ideal number of students in a classroom. It is 45 students at the ratio of 1:45. In our universities, it is supposed to be 1:20. In our Technical Vocational and Education Training institutions (TVETs) it is 1:30. The 100 per cent transition is a very positive thing in this country and it has made enormous impact. We have challenges because sometimes a classroom can have 60 students or beyond. We went to a school in Roysambu where a classroom had 80 students. If you go to Olympic Primary School in Kibra, you will see this problem. We will improve the situation as we progressively improve the infrastructure. We are also employing more teachers. Since Independence, I think employing 56,750 teachers in a year is in itself a record and so, we hope to tackle this problem progressively. Going to Baringo County, my friend from Mogotio has asked what happens in case a teacher dies. I think we have a workmen's compensation scheme. I will find out and confirm what the law provides. I know there is something, but allow me to check because I do not want to give you an answer based on guesswork. There is a question on Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) with no teachers and no Form Ones. It is unfortunate if we have a school that does not have Form Ones. Hon. Speaker, today I was in Nyeri County for an Education Day, and one of the challenges mentioned to me was that there are schools with classrooms but have no pupils. We do not have enough students. On this, there are factors contributing to it. I am not able to give you an answer as to why there are no Form Ones because we need to know the specific schools so that we can understand the factors that have caused the absence of Form Ones. We have tried as much as possible to provide teachers for JSS, and we are recruiting another 20,000 teachers. In case there is a school where we have pupils but no teachers, I will consult with my Principal Secretary and I am sure we will find a remedy for that. On the criteria we used to establish JSS, we issued guidelines to each and every sub- county. One of the guidelines was the level of enrolment in a particular school. If a school had five students and the distance to another school is not large, we made a decision based on that. Those are some of the considerations we made so that the available resources — may they be human, material or technical — are optimally used. As of now, I think we have about 28,000 JSS. Even after we had concluded the exercise, a number of Members of Parliament approached me, my Principal Secretary, regional directors and county directors and, we were flexible. We were able to consider, and where there was a need, we increased the number. And even now, if you have such a case, we can consider on its own merit. On the recruitment of interns, you know the policy of the Government. It does not apply on recruitment of teachers alone but in all areas. Thousands of our young people are coming out of higher institutions of learning and middle level colleges. It gives them an opportunity to earn some income while they are waiting for permanent and pensionable employment. The maximum period that they serve in order for them to be absorbed on permanent and pensionable terms is two years. When I interact with a number of teachers, because that is my work, they say they are very happy with the Government policy of giving them internship as they wait to be absorbed on permanent and pensionable terms. Even when you compare the terms of teachers employed by the Boards of Management (BOM) to those working as interns, the terms of interns are better. When the economy of this country improves, and Members you know this because you are the ones who give us a budget, then the period of two years will be reduced to probably one year. We appreciate what our people can do and we have to give them what is the very best. On the Elimu Scholarship, we normally advertise countrywide. This particular year, we took 14,345 students. The criterion is that you have to get some kind of minimum score in 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"
}