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"id": 185388,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Affey",
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"legal_name": "Mohammed Abdi Affey",
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"content": "Thank you very much, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to support this very important Vote and Ministry.It goes without saying that this Ministry is at the core of our economy. It is actually at the core of our existence as a nation. It is the Ministry that we want to create a prosperous and united Kenya. This is the Ministry that we want to be at every corner of this country in order to prepare the youth, so that they can feel Kenya has a place for everybody. Therefore, I think the Minister deserves to be given all the support by the House and other Ministries. I want to go straight to the point. First, is the welfare of the staff. When I talk about staff, I mean the teachers, because all of us were taught in our schools by teachers and we know the kind of economy we have now, and understand the challenges we face. It is, therefore, very important for the Minister to ensure that every time he is dealing with educational matters, his focus should be on how to improve the welfare of teachers in this country. Only when you improve their welfare will they feel motivated to train the young ones. On the issue of teachers, it is very sad that as we train very many teachers in this country, a huge chunk of the Kenyan people, particularly the pastoral communities, be they in Turkana, in Maasailand or in north eastern Kenya, do not get equal opportunities to go to training schools. They do not get the opportunity to become P1 teachers, because somebody somewhere in Nairobi--- I do not know whether they are in the Ministry of State for Public Service, and I want the Minister and the education officials here to be very sensitive when they are admitting students. If they wait for a memorandum to come from the Minister of State for Public Service to tell them who to train and at what level--- What has happened in the North Eastern Province, particularly, is that initially, we used to have our graduates from Form IV with a D+ grade getting admitted to primary school teacher training colleges to pursue a P1 course. That has now been elevated to grade C. This has effectively locked out a whole generation of young people from that part of the country from finding opportunities to be trained as teachers. At one stage, I had to go to the Ministry with a young girl with grade C- and I was told that, that grade was for the disabled. I said: \"But this province is also disabled; consider it under that category!\" How will it be possible to get students from the North Eastern Province in teachers training institutions, who can eventually go back and teach our young ones in the villages? The other day, when the Ministry was recruiting, in all the October 7, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2507 constituencies in the North Eastern Province, recruiters were unable to get even 20 per cent of the local population for jobs in the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), because they are not trained. We have a training institution in Garissa; initially, the plan of the Ministry was to use the Garissa Teachers Training College as a catchment institution for the students who graduate from the region. If you go to the institution now, nearly 90 per cent of the students--- Of course, we have no problem with other Kenyans training there, but this goes against the spirit of the Ministry itself, which made it locate the institution in Garissa in the first place. So, I am sure that the Minister, the Permanent Secretary and all the officials sympathise with us when we visit them, but what we require is an affirmative engagement, so that from next year, they should reduce the qualification of students from the region, or at least those from the pastoral communities, to grade D+; I have put a substantive Question to the Minister regarding this matter. The House will be surprised to know that, perhaps, not more than 100 people were trained in the last few years from North Eastern Province. With the number of schools that we have, it is overwhelming to imagine that with the Free Primary Education Programme now, quite a number of young people would want to come and study. Therefore, the shortage of teachers can be addressed by changing the policy. Allow us to provide you with students with \"D+\" who will train as P1 teachers. Of course, you will say that their calibre is low. But that is what we have. That is what our institutions are able to produce. Those are the people who will be willing to work in the province when they get employed by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC). Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, this brings me to a general change of policy by the Ministry itself. I mean, they need to think outside the box. How do you address the challenges faced by the nomadic communities in this country? How do they get possibilities like any other person to find training opportunities in this country? Therefore, I think there is need to form what I call the \"National Nomadic Education Commission\" so that, at least, it can be tasked to monitor the progress of education in that part of the country. That has not been done before and we have got countries in the region that are basically nomadic. I mean, in Nigeria, they have a huge nomadic community, and the Nigerian Ministry of Education has such a commission. Kenya, whose 70 per cent of the land mass is inhabited by the nomadic community, must have such a commission to address the particular problems facing that region. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the other one, of course, is the university intake. I think it is also right to say that the Ministry for Higher Education, Science and Technology should consider admitting students who get good grades, but who might not be able to meet the cluster points. Last year, in North Eastern Province, we had, for the first time, a young man who had an \"A-\" and he could not pursue a degree in medicine because of the cluster combination. He can only go and do it in the parallel degree programme and not in the regular programme. We got the generosity of the Vice-President and Minister for Home Affairs through the Kalonzo Musyoka Foundation, which is now assisting that young man to do medicine. But what we want is whether the Ministry, in fact, could identify the key students in every district who get \"As\". If they can pursue the parallel programme, I am sure they can also do it in the other programme. They should be given an opportunity to pursue that programme, so that they can be able to access the loans that the Government provides. Finally, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the Minister can relate this to the Minister for Higher Education, Science and Technology. I had an opportunity to visit Moi University, which has a huge population of all the Kenyan students in this country. You cannot access Moi University today. You take nearly three hours because of the condition of the road there. I think the Minister can liaise with the Minister for Roads and Public Works--- When I went to visit the University, they requested me: \"Please, Mheshimiwa, you have visited us here. We have students from your constituency here. Could you, please, ask the Government to repair this road?\" That road is only 15 2508 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES October 7, 2008 to 20 kilometres, but it takes two-and-half hours! It is so depressing for parents and students. It is high time we do something for that institution because it is as good as any other institution in this world. It is a first class institution and we are proud of it. I think there is something that the Ministry can do. Finally, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, on exam leakages, I want to thank the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC). I think they have come out every time there is that crisis to reassure parents and students. But I think they must do more. Not only them, but the Kenya Police and the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS) must do more to protect the integrity of our exams! As those students graduate, they must find job opportunities all over the world. Once you question the integrity of the certificates they are carrying, you destroy nearly all those years of education! Therefore, KNEC must liaise with the intelligence department even before those papers are printed. There is no use to display them after they have been printed. That is because, already, some damage has been done even before they are printed! There must be some ability by KNEC to protect the integrity of the exams. If they do not have, we must empower them with the resources and the necessary security gadgets they require in order to forestall that danger. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, with those few remarks, I beg to support."
}