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"id": 207348,
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"speaker_name": "Maj-Gen. Nkaisserry",
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"legal_name": "Joseph Kasaine Ole Nkaissery",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this very important Motion. First of all, I would like to commend the Mover of this Motion. I think he has a very important vision for the young people of Kenya. I would like to begin by saying that, if we are to succeed in this, we need to have a strategic policy, encompassing all education structures in the country, beginning with early childhood education, primary education, secondary education and 3346 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES August 22, 2007 university education. It is very important that we have a policy strategy that will highlight how our education system will be carried out in this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, early childhood education should start at the village level. It is important that the responsibility of early childhood education should start with the local communities, supported by the local authorities. The local authorities should be empowered, through Local Authorities Transfer Fund (LATF) or other finances, to enable early childhood education to be effective. The only way we can have an effective early childhood education is, first and foremost, to employ teachers who are paid by the Government through the local authorities. Secondly, we need to put up very important facilities for children at the village level. We should congregate that at the village level, so that those young children do not have to move or travel for long distances. That can only come about if we have prudent, visionary and future-focused leadership. We do not need to keep on talking issues that we do not put into practice. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to commend the Ministry of Education and the Government for introducing the Free Primary Education (FPE) Programme. This undertaking has given the children of Kenya a future. However, I want to emphasise that for the FPE programme to provide quality education, the Government must employ teachers. The Government must achieve the correct teacher to pupil ratio. We cannot have the FPE Programme and, yet the teachers are not there. That way, we would not get quality education. I would also like to commend the Government for its proposal to offer free secondary education programme, if it will ever implement it. That is a commendable move. I want to suggest that if there will be any \"left-overs\" to be returned to the Treasury in this financial year, which will mean inefficiency in some Government Ministries, then that money should not be returned to the Treasury. It should be re-allocated to the Ministry of Education to enable needy children of the Republic of Kenya to access education. That is very important. We can also use the \"left-overs\" to employ more teachers. The Ministry of Education was given money to employ 11,000 teachers when the shortage of teachers is above 50,000. We cannot provide quality education unless we pass this Motion. That is why when I started talking, I said that we need a strategic policy encompassing education from early childhood to the primary level, secondary level and to college. That is the only way we can access quality education. I would like to suggest that centres of excellence be created in all constituencies, as a way of improving quality education. That is important. If we implement it, we will help our people to access quality education. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the issue of scholarships at the college and university levels should be encouraged. The Ministry should introduce an effective and a cheaper way of making payments. I suggest that we give scholarships but we also avail loans with low interest rates for those who cannot access full scholarships, so that majority of our children can access quality education. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also like to suggest that the CDF allocation be increased to 7.5 per cent of our revenue so that it can take care of early childhood education at the constituencies level. If we do that, we will get out of the problem of lack of teachers at the early education institutions. That is critical. I will come back again to the issue of strategic policy. That policy can also propose that if we increase the CDF allocation to 7.5 or 10 per cent, each constituency should be able to take care of its early childhood education in terms of payment of salaries and building early child's education institutions. That is very important. It would enable our country to move forward and attain very high standards of education, if not the best in the region. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}