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"content": "Kshs150 million to boost the SFP. An area of policy that we want to tidy up is that the food bought should be based on homegrown food provisions. We must secure the food from within the country and not outside. Some of us are not very clear about the Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) that could be adulterating our foods. Nevertheless, one of the things I would like to assure you about is that we are very much alive with the SFP and we shall continue with it. A lot has been said about how we want to train our teachers. I agree with Mr. Dalmas Otieno that this craze of taking all the TTCs and turning them into universities is not good. However, the blame lies squarely with us, politicians. Every time, we want to make a petition for our communities, we think of a university and the easiest thing we want to grab is an existing TTC. I think you should be in the forefront to help us stem that kind of approach so that we can retain the TTCs. There are only 19 now, but we want to offer as much training as we can to our teachers. We need many more teachers so we cannot afford to lose the existing TTCs. I have taken into account October 8, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2605 that, currently, to be admitted into our TTCs, one must have attained a C plain. I have had some messages from hon. Members, but I would like them to also remember that we started off by saying that we want quality education. We need excellence in education. The only other way we might wish to redress this imbalance is through the schools of excellence that we have allowed to be established in every district, that is, one for girls and the other for boys. That will, indeed, address the type of issues hon. Members are raising. That way, the current crop of students will conform to the quality standards that we have set for ourselves. We cannot set one standard and pass another one. Therefore, we need to have conformity in the standards that we have set for our education. For now, the education standards in this country are very high. We need not adulterate them. I would like to politely disagree with the hon. Member for Rangwe that in Uganda they have a better Free Primary Education Programme (FPEP) and Free Secondary Education Programme (FSEP). No, that is not the case. I think there is a misunderstanding on the type of the FSE we are offering in this country. As a Government, we have said categorically that we are offering free day secondary education. The only thing that a child needs to do is to take himself or herself to the classroom in uniform and the food will be provided by the parents. The other things like school equipment, tuition, books and so on have already been catered for. In addition, we are giving the capitation that they have never seen before. When charging fees, it was at the level of about Kshs7,000. We are now giving a capitation of Kshs10,000. I think that money is more than adequate. Each hon. Member here is either a member of the DEB or an ex- offico member of the BoG of schools in their constituencies. We want them to make it their business--- Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, recently, we had to modify the rules of engagement to allow a Member of Parliament to second a person to the committee at the district or constituency level when the bursary funds are being given out. It is innovation. We do not want to bring politics into our schools, but at the same time we realise that they are one of our major stakeholders and we cannot leave them out totally. We want to start with professionalism in our institutions and ensure delivery at the same time. The infrastructure development must be carried out clearly. I have just come back from New York where I attended a conference on the MDGs and Education for All (EFA), which we must attain by 2015. The message is very clear: How have you done it in Kenya? Can you help us to craft a position? Next month, we will have an African Education Conference here in Nairobi. The next one will be in Geneva. They will be looking at Kenyan examples. Therefore, we have made some positive progress. However, I agree that there are areas that need to be addressed so that we can make it better everyday. With regard to school infrastructure, we have allocated a lot of money. Every Kenyan school has, in fact, benefitted from the Schools Infrastructure Programme (SIP). In the last Budget, we gave out money to the schools' accounts and most of the schools are in receipt of the those funds. What we are saying is that, money meant for infrastructure must go to infrastructure. I will give you an example. I went to my constituency over the weekend and I visited the schools there impromptu. I wanted to know whether the money that I put in through the CDF and the Ministry of Education is being used for the right purpose and action. Therefore, we should hold the school management committees and BoGs accountable for those funds because they are directly channelled into their accounts. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with regard to the question of non-formal education, you will be surprised that we have moved so aggressively to address the issue of those--- With regard to the question of infrastructure, it might please the hon. Members that since this project was started, we have been able to do 1,865 new classrooms; 3,537 classrooms have been rehabilitated and 32,290 new desks have been procured. Also, 5,194 new toilets, 199 new water projects, and 188 administration blocks have all been secured. The construction and rehabilitation projects are 2606 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES October 8, 2008 still ongoing. Despite the recent debacle, we have been able to mainstream resources to some of the affected areas. There are schools in Trans Nzoia, Uasin Gishu and Molo districts that have benefitted immensely from the Kshs345 million. Recently, those schools that were beneficiaries of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and, therefore, extending congestion in the existing classrooms have also been assisted in both the first and second tranches. In the non-formal institutions, we have been supporting 233 non-formal schools mainly in the municipalities. In the current Budget, we are going to support an additional 300 schools making a total of 533 non-formal institutions. Although they are called \"non-formal\", to us, these are the people we want to capture in the mainstream of our education system. We cannot leave them out there because they must be part of us. Otherwise, they will lapse into illiteracy and then we will be grappling with it. On the question of nomadic education policy, I have already told you what is on the plate and I think it is a matter of time before we are able to agree on how to move together. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other issue is basic education. Yes, the literacy rate in this country is only 62.2 per cent which means about 48 per cent of our population is illiterate and out of that population, about 49 per cent are young people between ages 13 and 45 years. What does that tell you? That they may have gone to school but they have lapsed into illiteracy. That is the most uncomfortable position we want to be in. Therefore, since the Department of Adult Education has just been moved to our Ministry this financial year, we have every single intention to beef up the activities of that department because it will help us to be able to achieve Education For All (EFA) 2015. Without that, we will not be able to achieve EFA 2015. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the guidelines for free secondary education have been given out. We talked about the delays in the disbursement of funds. Earlier on this year, because of the problems we had, there was a problem of release of the Exchequer fund. As we stand here today, most of the funds have been released to the accounts of various schools and the balance of Kshs3.237 billion will shortly be factored into the schools accounts and, therefore, that should not create any difficulty. We intend to be abreast and ahead with every situation as it arises. I must mention about the teachers and their cry for increased salaries. We have never said \"no\". The Minister of State for Public Service is here and he can attest to that. We have said that the policy of the Government is towards harmonisation and that is where we are. We are telling people that no one arm of Government should enjoy peculiar positions against another. They should know that according to the Teachers Service Commission Act, the only thing that the Minister for Education can do is to be able to appoint a Teachers Salary Review Commission (TSRC). I have done that. I did it on 20th April and they are negotiating. The Ministry of Education, the Teachers Service Commission, the Ministry of Public Service and Treasury are all negotiating and they have had six meetings. When I hear outcries from out there, it is not fair because they know we are already on the negotiating table. We have a collective bargain agreement with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and that is their negotiation. When the negotiations are over, obviously the ball shifts to my table. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, contrary to what other people may wish me to do and I have seen an editorial to that effect, that I should not interfere, I am not interfering because I know my role has not been called upon to pay. My role comes after they meet on 14th October which is this month. So, I would urge teachers that sometimes patience pays and we are not averse to harmonisation. They have put their demands on the table, I have met them and we have met them. Issues relating to some of the aspects of salaries that they are uncomfortable with are being addressed and we are grappling with that. Until that process has gone through, I think sometimes patience demands that we do just as much as we must do. I think it is an area that I would like to request our teachers to be patient. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to thank our teachers for the good job that they October 8, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2607 are doing. We are not in any way saying that we do not want them to ask. Let them ask what they want to ask but we can only do it within a given scope of time. I may not be in a position now by law to spill anything in this House because until they have gone through that TSCRC that they are currently involved in, my hands are tied up. However, my hands will be loosened when they either record agreement or disagreement. Whichever way it goes, it will still have to come to my table. So, let them wait patiently since it will come to my table and we shall handle it. Let us not hurry to issues that will cause tension in terms of disrupting examinations for our students. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, one hon. Member mentioned about gender parity in the Ministry. You will be very surprised that I have got about five parastatals which are semi- autonomous in my Ministry and all of them are run by women. They are the chief executives and that is a very good record for this Ministry. When you talk about the Directors of Eduction in the Ministry, almost half of them are women. I hear somebody saying it is discrimination but I am aware that the boy-child education is being threatened like in Maasailand and, I heard it today, in Meru and other places. As the situation arises, we shall obviously address it. We will not be averse to that level. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to thank all the hon. Members for this wonderful exposition that was given to this honourable House and we have taken into account the concerns. The notes we have taken do not end up here. When we go back to the Ministry, I have asked my staff to follow them up. We have already done a summary of what we discussed yesterday; and today's debate will also be summarised and we will be able to feed them into the policy document that we are currently developing. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Early Childhood Development (ECD) is obviously a new area which we are going positively into and we have made provisions for it. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is another new area and we are going into it. We know of the constraints in terms of power supply and, in fact, the collaboration between my Ministry and the Ministry of Energy is that we must access most of our educational institutions with electricity of one form or the other so that we can be able to introduce ICT. With those few remarks, I want to thank the hon. Members for the very wonderful contributions and indeed we are good stakeholders. Do not forget that the Ministry of Education is your home. That is where you started and that is where you will always end. You are most welcome. I beg to move."
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