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"id": 185387,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/185387/?format=api",
"text_counter": 179,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mrs. Shabesh",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 377,
"legal_name": "Rachel Wambui Shebesh",
"slug": "rachel-shebesh"
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"content": "I want to also speak about the issue of teachers. I feel that we really must hold teachers accountable in one way or another. We cannot sweep it under the rag that teachers cannot sign performance contracts because of one reason or another. I do appreciate the hardships that teachers go through, especially on issues of remuneration and, probably, job satisfaction. But it is important because our children are the future of this country. Teachers should be held accountable for teaching and providing quality education. Therefore, if performance contracts would bring contention, the Ministry must come up with another way. But we cannot say that we will allow teachers to go scot-free while other Government institutions and bodies are being forced to sign performance contracts. That is because I do believe that this Government wants to improve in all the sectors. If education must improve, you will agree with me that teachers must also improve in service delivery. I also want to say that the method of training teachers, I believe, is a bit archaic. During the conversations that we were having during the school strikes, the Minister is aware that many people raised that issue. I was one of those who raised that issue because we have to move with the times. The Ministry must also move with the times. Therefore, teacher training must move with the times. We must find a way of training teachers that does not bore children. Children are bored! We are giving them a big workload and on top of that, they have boring teachers. The way to teach these days is interactive and more about experiments. It is a different way from lecturing, giving homework and taking punitive measures. So, I would like them to look at the issue of training of teachers. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I want to speak about informal schools or non-formal schools, because in Nairobi, we have these schools in a big number. I would like the Ministry to be clear on where exactly these schools fall in their plans for disbursement of funds. The students who go to these schools are like any other student and, therefore, must be put in their plans. I do not know where they have been put and I would appreciate if the Ministry, especially in urban areas like Nairobi, gave a lot of attention to non-formal schools because they are doing a great service. Even if they are not regulated well, they are offering a service because they are taking care of children from the slum areas. Also private schools, they have had a love-hate relationship with the Ministry for a long time. I would like to urge the Minister to bring on board the Kenya Private Schools Association (KPSA), because we cannot ignore the role that private schools play in this country. The KPSA should have a working relationship with the Ministry because these schools are also providing the same education that the Ministry is regulating. We cannot ignore the fact that most of the students who do well come from private schools, simply because of the better standards. We do not want a situation where students who go to public schools and private schools are put at a level at which they are supposed to be competing. I do not think it is fair! We must find a way to equalise the way that we deal with private and public schools. On the issue of children with special needs, in developed countries which have recognised that disability is not inability, children with special needs are not taken to special schools, but are rather integrated within the school systems that exist. That allows them to stop feeling isolated. They are already feeling isolated because of their disability but most of their disabilities do not hinder them from going to the same schools as other children. I would really encourage the Minister to allocate a good amount of money into integration programmes. I know schools that are working very well with this integration here in Nairobi, and I know that the Minister is aware of 2506 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES October 7, 2008 this. Please, find a way to make integration core in the issue of dealing with children with special needs. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, as I conclude, I would like to urge the Ministry to have a working committee with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Ministry of State for Public Service and the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology. I am worried that we are producing millions of young Kenyans and not creating jobs. That is why we are having a problem with unlawful groupings of young people who are frustrated. We are giving free primary and secondary school education; we are taking children to school but there is no marshall plan for job creation in this country. So, the Minister might be doing a beautiful job but he is producing frustrated young Kenyans, and I do not think that is what he wants to do. He must work with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and the Ministry of State for Public Service, because we must find out what it is that we must teach our young people in order for them to get jobs in our current market in this country and in Africa. There is no reason for us to bring out scientists upon scientists who cannot get jobs in Kenya, because we do not have that number of jobs. Maybe, it is about time we looked at our curriculum. As I said, if the Minister sits with the Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, whom I had not noticed sitting next to him, I believe that we will solve the problem that we are having with the youth in this country, because we cannot have a productive country without productive youths who are well educated. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}