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"id": 189667,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/189667/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Nyammo",
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"speaker": {
"id": 117,
"legal_name": "Francis Thombe Nyammo",
"slug": "francis-nyammo"
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"content": "Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I will make a few observations. The first one is that, as a nation, unless we admit that the youth we have today are products of our educational system, we will probably be treating symptoms. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the education system we have is such that we emphasise on numbers. We have, kind of, neglected skills. We have forgotten there is something called attitude. We have forgotten there is something called talent. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, in our education system, we have assumed that everybody in Classes One, Two, Three and Four can become an academic. So, we herd them as goats. We refuse to identify talent. Some of them can become first class footballers; some can become first class musicians and some first class this or the other. We herd them together. We need to go back and answer some very fundamental questions towards the development of our youth. As far as education is concerned, we must answer the question: Education for what? Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, if we answer that question adequately, then we shall be able to overhaul our education system with a view to providing skills for our youth. As it is, we keep on telling everybody \"be university educated\", \"be tertiary institutions educated\" and we end up with misfits. Everybody complains that we have graduates who are unemployed or are unemployable. This is just because we have not wanted to find out the stock of our skills, as a July 15, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1821 country. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, what inventory of skills do we have as a country and what are the gaps? If we know the skills and gaps that we have in the country, we have every reason of telling institutions: \"Please, provide for the gaps! However, we have not done that. I suggest in all seriousness that the country should take a moment and take an inventory of the skills that we have. Coming to the youth, we have assumed - and I hope the Minister is listening - that every youth is destined to be a businessman or businesswoman. That is not the case. When we go to training, we want to train all of them to be business people. They do not have the skills or even the wish to be business people. Let us make the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) to be a little bit flexible, to provide for other kinds of training, for instance, Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Those who do not want to get into business, let them be given other kinds of skills which will enable them to go into self-employment or get employed a lot more easily. The other point is that YEDF is channelled via intermediaries like banks and so forth. I do not know whether it is known that some of those banks, instead of disbursing the funds to the youths, they persuade them to borrow their money, which is a lot more expensive. The youth do not take the money from YEDF, which is disbursed at an interest rate of 8 per cent. The banks are lending at an interest rate of 18 per cent. That is something we need to look at. Whether that is desirable or not, I do not think so. When we disburse the YEDF monies, we do not provide money for monitoring and evaluation. When there is something wrong, those officers are not empowered. If there is a problem between a group and a bank or an institution, those officers will have to use their own money to go and find out what is wrong. We need to look into that. The other point is about dispute resolution among the groups. Here, again, the officers are not empowered. Those groups borrow but, as soon as they team up with a view to going to business, they start quarrelling. The officers are not empowered to move quickly and assist in dispute resolution. So, those groups fall apart and, therefore, the benefit does not accrue to anybody. I do admire the courage of the Minister and the Treasury for providing funds for sports. Yes, sports has put this country on the world map. But why are we shy and not tell our children that they can make a career in sports like football, athletics and so on? If you look at some of these few points, I think the Ministry will be doing a commendable job and I wish them well. I beg to support the Vote."
}