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{
    "id": 1525288,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1525288/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 220,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Saku, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Ali Raso",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I rise to support this very progressive Bill. Hon. Wamaua, when I initially looked at your Bill, I asked myself why it did not come as part of an omnibus Bill. However, in hindsight, the proposed instrument has a far-reaching effect, which warrants more attention than just a line in an omnibus Bill. For that reason, I support it as a standalone Bill in three areas. First, our Constitution talks about devolution and decentralisation. The county education boards are the epicentre for coordinating education in the counties. Looking at the rise in population and the configuration of sub-counties, some constituencies have three or four sub-counties because of their vastness in size. I do not countenance what Hon. Keynan said, that we should look at the counties as the epicentres of devolution. I disagree with him because we are decentralising education only to centralise it again at the constituency level. For that reason, the elephant in the room for Hon. Wamaua is to convince the Budget and Appropriations Committee to allocate more money to the education sector. Beyond that, all other factors remain constant. This is a very important Bill that this House must support. For those of us who are pastoralists from arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs), one of our major difficulties today is that although we are told education is one tiered; it is two-tiered. There is the education that counties close to the centre receive and that which far-flung counties receive. There are two types of education. Therefore, when we decentralise education at the grassroots, it will reach every corner of this country. The CBC is the way to go. In Saku Constituency, certain schools cannot be reached by the team from the county education board when it rains. Only the teachers, parents and students are left in the schools. If it rains for three months, those schools are cut off. But if we have a sub-county team that can use all available means to access those institutions, that will be the way to go. Hon. Temporary Speaker, you and I know that one of the reasons why we have low turnout and low performance in education in our region is the lack of supervision. The county education boards are 300 or 400 kilometres from some of our constituencies. That makes it difficult for them even to arrange logistics to supervise the schools on a day-to-day and monthly basis. That also affects the promotion and posting of teachers, especially when one has first- hand information on what goes on. On the Constitution of the Board, Hon. Wamaua needs to consider the basic education requirements. The requirements must be basic as opposed to appearing to be the ceiling. The basic requirement should be a post-secondary education for all the members, but they can have a university education and specialise in certain fields. From the drafting, it appears that a university education is the basic requirement, which Members are uncomfortable with. You have been guided on the same issue as well. Finally, I want to talk about school registration, funding, and the school feeding programme. This Bill is best placed to address those issues. It takes a year for a school to be registered. I think it is because that board meets twice or thrice yearly. A sub-county education board can meet every two or three months. It can even meet every month if an emergency within a constituency or sub-county requires attention. With those remarks, I support this very progressive proposed legislation. I ask all colleagues to support it. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker."
}