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"speaker_name": "Ms. Abdalla",
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"legal_name": "Abdallah Jumaa Ngozi",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to support the Motion by Prof. Mango for the following reasons:- Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am a beneficiary of HELB. I think HELB, as previously constituted before, got into the system of issuing varied loans. It had a very fair system in which everybody got the same amount as opposed to the situation now. The problems affecting HELB are not caused by decentralisation but, rather, standardisation. All the students sign the same form, irrespective of their parents' economic situation and their own exposure. That means that students who are more exposed, irrespective of whether they come from rural or urban areas, are able to fill those forms in such a way that they receive more loans than those who are less exposed. So, the change that this Motion is seeking for should be looking more deeply into how the forms should be made more practical and user-friendly. That way, children from less exposed families will be able to fill the forms in a much better way than they are filling now. The disparity now is not how much the student qualifies for a loan, but how well they filled their forms. So, in this regard, I will be looking more at the issue of decentralisation of information and criteria, rather than having officers in different constituencies. Although decentralising to the constituency level might be another possibility, but in my view, as a beneficiary of HELB, I think the solution is to increase the knowledge base of all the children - at least, the ones going to public universities - so that they can fill the forms correctly. So, those who deserve more will be able to get more than those who do not deserve. I think having it at the constituency will help in identifying more deserving cases than in just having another bureaucracy decentralised to the constituency level. September 26, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 4169 So, in terms of public universities, we should be looking at how the knowledge base of the applicants should be increased, so that those who are deserving will fill those forms better and benefit more. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as has been said by previous speakers, students from marginalised areas are already disadvantaged by not being able to access public universities because of the cut-off points. A student who gets a \"C\" from a school in Ijara is definitely very competitive, if he or she was given the same facilities with students from other areas. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, one of the biggest successes of our former colleague, Dr. Godana, was to experiment with children who were performing in Marsabit and receiving grade \"Ds\" in their examinations. He would help them to get into certificate courses. Eventually, those children became Grade \"A\" students in diploma courses and then pursued parallel degree programmes in universities. This clearly shows that children from marginalised areas should be given a different opportunity to get into higher education. This means that if we have a decentralised HELB system, a child from Ijara or North Horr who gets a Grade \"C\" or a \"C\" minus, should be given funding to go for a parallel degree programme. I am sure, he will be able to have First Class Honours in the university given that he or she was able to perform under much harder circumstances in those marginalised areas. In terms of decentralisation, we should be looking at the neediness of the person rather than just saying that this will be open to parallel degree students generally. In that sense, the people who have access to parallel degree programmes are already exposed enough. If they organised a harambee, they would be able to raise more money than children from marginalised areas. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other reason why the HELB should cover children who are going to parallel degree programmes is that the cut-off points in our public universities are based on the places available rather than the performance of the students. If we expand HELB to cover students joining parallel degree programmes, we will be able to have more children enroling in our universities who cannot afford university fees. Another thing that the HELB programme has not looked into very deeply is to change the entire culture of the Kenyan psyche. We need to make it clear that you have to pay for whatever you get. This means that if we make sure that students can get loans from the HELB, if your children turn 18 years of age and you have given them the best education and facilities, they would then know that they will go to the HELB to look for this money and will have to pay back. That will eventually kill the culture of us having to do harambees all the time, sometimes for cases that are less deserving just because they are able to meet and discuss their problems with Members of Parliament or other leaders. We should assist the more deserving cases. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in my opinion, if the HELB widened its scope, people would have less excuses for having harambees for higher education. Former students would also look for jobs because they will not be able to get any other loans unless they pay their loans from the HELB. This decentralisation will help deserving cases, parallel degree programmes and increase the situation of equity which the current HELB is not addressing. It depends on how well an individual fills the form rather than whether he is a deserving case. I say this with concrete evidence. I have a case of two students; one an orphan and the other for a single parent. The single parent has a very well-paying job, yet her child got more HELB money than the student who is an orphan. My analysis of that situation is simply that the student who is an orphan did not fill the forms properly. The HELB officials do not invest any time in ensuring that the deserving students get the loans and also assisting those who fill their forms wrongly. I do not believe that currently the HELB has an effective public relations department. They should adopt a more human approach towards students applying for loans. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I hope that this law, once amended, will not just call 4170 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES September 26, 2007 for decentralisation of the HELB and get people who are insensitive to the applicants at the constituency level. That will not solve the problem that currently the centralised HELB is facing. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}