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{
"id": 1563844,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1563844/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Orwoba",
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"content": "Association have decided to come together, therefore you have to pay motivation to have the teachers to come in class for two or three extra hours. Madam Temporary Speaker, let us have an honest conversation that should generate from this Upper House, where we really want to push for equity, but we are also alive to the fact that as it stands, perhaps, we cannot finance the full education all the way to university, but then let us talk about consolidating all these funds and ensuring that at the bare minimum, primary school education is completely free. Madam Temporary Speaker, someone might be saying why primary school, why not primary school and high school? We are moving to a place where it is no longer about the certificates that you churn out. It is no longer about the theory. It is actually about the skills that you have. Madam Temporary Speaker, in developed countries, particularly in Europe, where I have had the experience of living, once you have that basic skills set, that basic education of primary school and you have an idea of what you want to be in future, or at least you have some level of drive that puts you to a certain industry, if they see this person is a musician, there is no point of me taking you through a whole other education system just to say that you finished your high school and now you have this certificate and then you go back to harness your creative skills. Madam Temporary Speaker, in developed countries, they give you the basic education and then it is encouraged for you to pick up a skill that can translate to some form of monetary work. That is why I am saying, my argument would be, once we consolidate these bursaries, if we are unable to give a platform where we can have completely free education, both in primary and high school, we should have an honest conversation with ourselves and say, let us focus on the primary, and ensure that in primary school, all the basic education levels are met, all the children are taken care of equally. It does not matter from which region or which county, whether it is a provincial school or a ward school. Let us just make sure that it is completely free for all primary schools. Madam Temporary Speaker, I do not want to belabour the point where my colleagues have talked about how this bursary, which is essentially a token, an award, has been politicized. It is obvious, the moment you have a resource given to a leader who is in politics, the one thing they will do, which they know how to do best, because they are there to represent their people, is to represent their people. That is why you hear in some constituencies, someone will tell you that the Member of Parliament will only give bursaries to the clan where they belong. That is literally the least expectation from the people. So, my thinking is, first of all, the whole idea of bursary is illegal. As I have said, the definition of bursary is that it is a monetary award. Why are you awarding children when our Constitution says that they have a right to free and compulsory education? If we are being honest with each other, just by its definition, we have to all agree that, in fact, we have been engaging in illegalities. We have been breaking the law because, in one way or another, we are stifling and making sure that these children and homes are unable to meet the financial expectation to get to the institutions of learning so that we can come and award them and say that we are the saviors. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}