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{
    "id": 1491758,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1491758/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 237,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ogamba",
    "speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Education",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I was trying to get some clarity. I would like to state that I do not want to go on record that I am evading a question. The response I am giving is a response based on the facts, the data and the information that we have on the issue of bursaries as well as on the issue of the scholarships. It is true that the schools receive these bursaries. However, the Ministry has no system of getting feedback. It has not been having a system of getting feedback of how much bursary the students have received. It is a good suggestion that maybe going forward, we need to have a structure where all the amounts paid per child to a school, needs to be database or domiciled in the Ministry. That is the reason why we said that the exercise is uncoordinated. I can go further to answer and state that there is no analysis that has been done to determine, for instance, how much money is required for a child to start from ECD and go all the way to university. We do not have that data. That is the same position vis-à-vis that we do not have data of how much money the country is spending on education. The 27 per cent I talked about is the Government allocation. There are other figures, other amounts that donors give and other people contribute, including the donations we give. That analysis has not been done to determine how much money we are spending in education. This conversation came about after we started having these issues relating to the higher education funding model. So, it is ripe for us to discuss and I believe it is the way to go. We need to determine how much money we need to give free education to our children. How much money we are spending so that we find out whether we are spending more or less. Then we can determine, come up with policies and regulations on how to deal with these issues. On the second question, we do not have a figure that can tell this is the actual amount that we need to give free secondary education to children. It is a conversation we need to have. All of us on the table need to work on it because 27 per cent of the budget is unsustainable. We will not be able to raise this. We need to get a better way of dealing with it. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the issue of FGM, what usually happens in this situation is that we work with the national Government administration to ensure that the parents comply with regulations. Where we get information that our students are being harassed in any way, the county officers we have in our counties and sub-counties take action. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, sometimes, these cases are done under the table, therefore, it is hidden. We need the Ministry of Interior to work with us. There is need for us to work with the headmen, chiefs, police officers and generally the administration, so as to ensure that when our girls are on holiday are not harassed in any way. We do not have our own police or administration to manage that space. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only.A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and Audio Services,Senate."
}