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{
    "id": 144484,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/144484/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 377,
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    "content": "the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) and donors with particular interest in improving certain areas. There is very little real impact, in terms of improving facilities in poor rural areas. We need to look into that so that the Government can put in enough money to have an impact in that area. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, beyond allocating money, the amended Motion says there is need for inspection. Very little inspection is done. We are in touch with the ground and know. There is no money and no vehicles in the Ministry to go to interior areas for inspections. What happens is that inspectors usually go to schools that are near the District Education Officer’s (DEO) office. These are schools around the district headquarters. Beyond that, nobody knows what happens. If you are in the marginal areas, nobody cares or knows what happens in those schools. That is why the schools lag behind. The Government is not able to give enough money to facilitate inspectors and Quality Assurance Officers to go to the schools and find out whether there is teaching, facilities are there and what can be done to improve the quality. Therefore, that aspect of inspection is very important. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, even in terms of utilization of the money that is taken to secondary and primary schools, the Government, again, is not able to do proper audit to find out whether that money is used. What we know is that a lot of that money is misused. Headmasters are told, “Give us audit reports”. What do headmasters do? They get somebody who has done some auditing in the village, give them the respsonbility and pay. He or she picks the papers, streamlines the books and presents them in an audited form. That report is then taken to the Ministry. But the Ministry has no capacity to follow up and see whether that money was properly spent. It has no capacity because it does not have enough money provided for that exercise. So, what we have is a blank cheque at the primary school level and secondary schools for the management to spend the money the way they want. Some are very good. They try their best. We know they struggle and manage the money properly. However, some have very little training in terms of management of money. They have not been able to manage money before. This is especially the case at the primary school level. These are the capacities that are needed so that the money can be used properly to improve education at the grassroots level. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as a result of this disparity between those who are able to go to the best schools because they have the money and those who go to public schools, we have very few people from public schools in secondary schools. Then at the university level, they are even fewer. The only aspect that helped in the past was poor people managing social mobility by children managing to go to university, getting properly educated and getting jobs. That window that was there that helped bring equity and social justice is no longer there. This is because the academies take everything. They are the ones who produce those who go to national schools and therefore, they are the ones who produce those who go to the best universities. So, again, the poor people are losing the small window that was helping to equalize us. If you look in this House, many Members are from fairly poor families. However, they have managed to reach where they are because those days the education system had some space for poor people. However, the way we are moving and always emphasizing only grades irrespective of looking at whether the poor people have the opportunity to produce the good grades that we want in national schools and universities, we are slowly closing and making it impossible for poor people to make it in life. We are sowing seeds for future conflicts in this country. Because poor people cannot get good education they cannot get good jobs. The rich continue getting richer and their children are the ones who would be getting jobs. Anyway, they"
}