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"speaker_name": "Mr. Billow",
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"legal_name": "Billow Adan Kerrow",
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"content": ", Kenya ranks as one of the worst countries in the world in terms of inequalities that exist. It is mainly because of the poor allocation of resources to the area of education. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are two main aspects of this Motion. One, is the fact that the Mover seeks to devolve the fund to constituency level, which is a very important thing. You will remember in 2004 when the Bomas Draft of the Constitution was done, the main interest of all Kenyans was to devolve allocation of resources from Nairobi back to the rural areas. It is in this context, that Members of this House very positively came up with the concept of the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) in terms of allocating resources down to the constituency. The same has been done for roads and several other funds. I think the reason is because we feel that there are disparities in the development of various regions of this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the second aspect is the issue of including students in the parallel degree programme in the allocation of these loans. Currently, only the regular students are receiving it. You will appreciate that one of the main limitations the HELB faces is in terms of the resource allocation. We are giving in the Budget a maximum of Kshs800 million annually for assisting students who are going to university, with loans. Compared to the same amount that we are giving for secondary schools bursaries, then this is a drop in the ocean. When we have over 50,000 students admitted to universities and we are allocating them only Kshs600 million, are we serious? In the first instance, I think it is really an indication of our minimal concern or commitment to education in this country. However, out of that 60,000 plus students who are admitted every year, we are told only about less than 40,000 actually receive the HELB loans. This is really worrying. What it means is that there are thousands of students who are actually admitted and who may not access loans to complete their studies in the universities. The second concern is that students receive a maximum of Kshs42,000 a year and a minimum of Kshs20,000. We know how much it costs to be in university these days. To be allowed only a maximum of Kshs40,000 and a minimum of Kshs20,000, really it means that parents have to dig deeper into their pockets to actually finance substantial amounts of the fees which are required to sustain the students in the universities. This is becoming very difficult. For a country where 50 per cent of the population is living below the poverty line and cannot even buy bread, to be asked to pay school fees for students in universities when you are already struggling with fees for students in secondary schools, is going to be a very difficult thing. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I think one of the things that we need to urge the Government is to look critically at the issue of higher education. The Government needs to allocate more resources for it. A sum of Kshs800 million is nothing. We spend billions just renovating the 4164 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES September 26, 2007 offices of our Ministers in this city alone every year. Out of Kshs700 billion, Kshs600 billion, as a matter of fact, is spent on what we call operations and maintenance. That is keeping the Government in office. It is not spent on development. We can allocate a little of that to educate our children, so that they can have good education up to university. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other main concern that I have is the issue of inequality. The country is not equal in terms of wealth. We know that there are regions in this country where the poverty index is over 76 per cent. A good example is North Eastern Province where the poverty index is 76 per cent. In other words, 76 per cent of the population in that area cannot raise Kshs1,500 a month to keep them alive. They cannot even raise Kshs70 or Kshs80 a day and yet parents in those areas are expected to pay the same fees as their counterparts in well-to- do areas for their children in public universities. I think this is where the inequality is. What the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) has done is to develop a standard application form that applies in North Eastern Province and other high potential areas in this country. Consequently, students who come from the poor regions of this country do not really have fair access. There is no fairness and equity in the allocation of these resources. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, by devolving these funds to the constituencies on a formula similar to the one used by the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF)--- The CDF takes into account the issue of poverty index. So, if we use poverty index as the basis for allocating loans to the constituencies, then we will introduce fairness and equity. Each constituency in this country will get its fair share of money for university education. So, what we need to do is to determine how many of our students are in regular courses and how many are in the parallel programme. We can then go ahead and distribute the money. One major disadvantage that we have is that many students coming from marginalised areas in this country fail to get the necessary qualifications to be admitted in the regular university programme through the Joint Admissions Board (JAB). For example, in 2005, in the whole of North Eastern Province, we are told that only 30 students from Garissa, 18 students from Wajir, three students from Ijara and 25 students from Mandera were admitted into our public universities. In other words, in the whole of North Eastern Province we had less than 70 students being admitted to regular courses in our public universities. The reason is that they failed to get the A- requirement and yet we all know the kind of circumstances in which students from this area have to study. There are no schools, teachers, facilities and so on. Consequently, out of the 3,000 or 4,000 students who sit for secondary school exams, a large number is forced to end up in our universities through the parallel degree programme. They will miss out from the assistance provided by the HELB. This is the inequity that we are talking about. The benchmark that we use for admission to university is wrong. It is not fair because it does not take into account the inequalities, the levels of development and the disparities that exist in our lives in North Eastern Province. That is the situation that obtained in 2005/2006 academic year. If you come to 2006/2007---"
}