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{
    "id": 185396,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/185396/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 188,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Muthama",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 96,
        "legal_name": "Johnson Nduya Muthama",
        "slug": "johnson-muthama"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker. I rise to support this Motion. But, at the same time, I want to apologise for the misunderstanding because hon. ole Ntimama's name and mine sound quite identical. So, I did not mean to overtake him. The Minister has presented this Motion in a very comprehensive way. He touched on many achievements. I totally want to agree with the Minister that, although a lot has been achieved, we still need to do a lot. He requires the support of this House to achieve more. I know I do not have a lot of time. I want to touch on some key points regarding this Motion. First, the beginning and basics of learning start from pre-primary schools. I remember very well that a few months ago, the Minister promised to consider creating job groups for pre-primary school teachers. There are a lot of complaints and disquiet in that area. My kind request to the Minister is to create jobs for pre-primary school teachers. Productivity has also been circumvented by complaints by primary school teachers. Primary school teachers have complained of not being October 7, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2515 considered as part of the society. There are complaints that their job groups are different from other civil servants. In the Civil Service, you find a divisional officer who is referred to as a District Officer has got a different salary. Teachers feel that they are squeezed. This is one area that the Minister must look into. He has to make sure that the salaries of teachers are harmonised with those of the other civil servants. The other issue that I want to raise is about secondary schools. There is lack of secondary schools. At the beginning of the year, secondary school spaces are taken by certain students. There are so many students who miss secondary schools. My kind request to the Ministry of Education is to consider having a secondary school between every two primary schools to make sure that Standard VIII leavers join such secondary schools. There is an issue of lack of teachers. In my constituency, there are double stream schools with 500 to 600 students and only seven to nine teachers. There is no way such a number of teachers can cope with over 700 students. That is a very serious issue. The Minister did very well the other day by trying to increase the number of teachers. We all know that the Budget controls Government expenditure. But with all due respect, I want to suggest that the money that is allocated to the Ministry should be increased so that more teachers could be hired. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, our secondary schools are faced with the same problem of shortage of teachers. The poor parents have been forced to employ teachers through the Parents, Teachers Association (PTA). They are the same parents who want to be assisted. They are the same people the Government is trying to offload the burden of paying secondary school fees, but now they are being asked to hire additional teachers. That is not helping to reduce their burden. At the end of the day, many teachers end up not being paid their salaries. Consequently, they have been forced to quit their teaching career simply because the poor parents cannot afford to pay them. This also applies to primary schools. Parents are heavily burdened and they are not in a position to pay teachers who are employed by the PTAs. With the funds that have been availed, the Minister will not be able to cope with the demand for teachers. Even though, certain efforts must be made to ensure that the burden has been taken away from parents. We represent the people who elected us. We are, therefore, leaders and people expect us to show the way. Every day, we are forced to answer questions such as why the parents should hire teachers. The Kshs106 billion shown in the Ministry's Budget is Kshs10 billion more than what was provided for in the last financial year. That is a great effort by the Government. The Ministry should be given special credit for being very candid in terms of providing answers in the House on matters to do with education. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, as I said before, salaries must be harmonised. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}