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"id": 207342,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Karaba",
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"speaker": {
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"legal_name": "Daniel Dickson Karaba",
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"content": "Thank you very much, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this chance again to, first, congratulate the Mover of the Motion. Also in support of it, I say that Early Childhood Development (ECD) is a very important component of education in our system. There is no way we are going to run away from it, because it is the background to what we call sound educational development of a child. If we are going to talk about child development, starting from birth, this is the most critical stage of our education system, where the kids are exposed to education facilities early in their life, hence the ECD introduction in our country. You will also note that even when the Nyayo Milk Programme was introduced, this was not considered to the extent that primary school pupils, even Standard Seven and Standard Eight pupils took milk but our ECD children were not treated in the same way. So, this area has been neglected for a long time, and I believe this is the first time we are going to consider re-introducing and re- affirming the child's development at a very early stage. The ECD level is the most relevant stage. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, you will note that in many primary schools where we have this ECD taking place, the facilities which are there are wanting. The classrooms sometimes have no windows, and even doors, and they are left like there is nobody who stays in them. There are no chairs, and these kids have to sit on the floor in most of the rural classrooms. This Motion, therefore, seeks to establish a system where children, before they proceed to Standard One, are properly trained to continue appreciating ECD and early education before they embark on serious work in Standard One. We appreciate the work done by these teachers. If there are teachers who should be really motivated, they are teachers who handle the ECD system, because they handle kids like they are their mothers. It is like they work in kindergartens and they act as babysitters. In many cases they 3342 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES August 22, 2007 are not supported, particularly with facilities. So, this Motion, once passed and implemented, is going to see to it that our children are, at the early stages of growth, taken care of as opposed to what is happening. These kids are left free to mingle with adults or mature pupils in Standards Three and Four. You may be surprised to note that they use the same toilet facilities with the older pupils, and this makes them not to know how the facilities are used. They are never exposed to facilities relevant to their age. So, you will find that a very young girl is exposed to a toilet where the hole is bigger than the length of her legs. You will, therefore, find that they are not able to use the facilities provided for other older pupils in the school. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are asking the Ministry that once this Act is amended to enable primary schools to have their facilities separate from those of the ECD, where they have a class is where they will have their facilities. If this happens, we are going to make sure that before those kids get to Standard One they will have been exposed so much to what is relevant to their age. The moment that does not happen, we are going to disrupt the growth of that kid and it will not appreciate the education being provided in that environment. You will realise that the pathetic conditions that these kids face can also distract their attention, or make them lose interest in school. The more you have kids losing interest in education, the more they engage in truancy. That is the reason why you find that in most cases once these kids join Standard One, they find it very difficult to continue up to Standard Eight. This is one of the reasons for high drop-out rates in our primary schools. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, those parents who can afford to take their kids to good pre-primary schools are the same ones who will take them to Standards One, Two, Three and Four. They are the same parents who will even get these kids up to Standard Eight for them to pass and go to Form One and onwards to the university. This is the trend! If it is not checked, the haves will continue having while the have-nots will continue being poorer, because they cannot even afford to take kids to schools where they can be taught efficiently for lack of facilities and money that is required for the standard of the kid. We also note that due to lack of money, care and attention from the Government, these kids cannot even walk to schools. We would like the Government to provide some kind of transport, particularly in Nairobi. Kids can be given a certain vehicle to pick them from a particular area and take them to a particular ECD school, so that they can continue learning. If this happens, we are going to have the ECD teachers and kids relating well with one another. I am sure that they are going to produce better results than they do now. The Government does not care to know where the ECD teachers, in most cases, come from. They are never trained and are not given any tuition. They are never even given instructions on how to handle some complicated cases regarding the children. The Government needs to produce teachers who are like nurses, because this is a very tender age for the child. Unless we have a teacher who has some knowledge that a child can contract pneumonia early in the morning as they travel the teacher might not have any basic knowledge of health facilities we, therefore, need to have this teacher getting some specialised training different from that given to ordinary teachers, so that they can handle well kids in this age bracket. These teachers are like the ones in specialised schools, those schools where we have special-needs cases. We have special needs in the kindergartens and the ECD institutions. This is the training we are asking for, so that those teachers who handle kids in early ages are trained to handle delicate human beings. These are kids who can get sick any time and might not know what is happening. We need to have specialised training of the teachers handling this cadre of pupils. So, this Motion should not, therefore, just get passed. It should be implemented immediately, because without doing that, we are going to have kids getting to Standard One without any interest in what goes on in class. This is something that should be supported. August 22, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3343 With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}