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"id": 208562,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/208562/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Angwenyi",
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"speaker": {
"id": 326,
"legal_name": "Jimmy Nuru Ondieki Angwenyi",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to move the following Motion:- THAT, in view of the Government's policy to provide quality education for all children in Kenya; conscious that the foundation for quality education starts with the early childhood education at the pre-primary school; aware that the Government 3202 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES August 15, 2007 trains, recruits and provides teaching staff for all public primary, secondary and post-secondary institutions and noting with appreciation the implementation of free primary education since 2003; this House grants leave to introduce a Bill for an Act of Parliament to amend the Education Act (Cap.211 of the Laws of Kenya), to provide for training, recruitment and early childhood education teaching staff in all public pre-primary and nursery schools in Kenya. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Government has shown interest in providing education to Kenyans which is the right thing to do. They are doing it in pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). When we attained Independence, we were economically at per with Botswana, Korea, Singapore and Malaysia. However, over the years, these countries have overtaken us in economic development, mainly because their level and quality of their education, is much higher and better than ours. Even today with the Vision 2030, we cannot achieve it unless we provide quality education right from childhood to universities. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I was visiting schools in my constituency to provide them with classroom facilities. I came across a school where parents have built a very nice classroom for their children and they have hired teachers for pre-primary education. There are three teachers and 120 pupils in that school. However, these teachers who have been employed by parents are earning Kshs2,000 per month. It is like a slavery service. Imagine somebody earning a meagre salary of Kshs2,000 a month to teach 120 pupils who are preparing to join Standard One where they will be taught free of any cost! When you take a child to school, that is when he or she begins to learn. If we do not provide quality foundation at that time, he or she will never find it. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I talked to these teachers and parents and they said that they are committed to giving their children quality education. They want to give their children good foundations in education. I discovered that members of the public and parents in this country are far ahead of the Government or educationists to know that we need to lay foundation right from day one. When a child leaves his or her parents to go to school, you need to lay foundation that can carry that child through his or her educational process. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I went out and carried out a survey and established that this problem is not only found in my constituency but rather in every constituency in this country. I talked to educationists. Prof. Oniang'o is here. She is an educationist. She can confirm whether it is covered. If you give quality education to a kid, right from day one, such a kid has a much higher chance of proceeding with education to the highest level. I also discovered that parents would want to give their children quality education, but they cannot afford it. That is why the Government has seen it fit to provide free education in primary and secondary schools and give bursaries and loans to university students. I tried to find out the cost of providing this essential foundation. I discovered that we have between 12,000 and 15,000 pre-primary classes in this country. If you give two teachers to each of those two classes, you will need 30,000 pre-primary school teachers. If you pay each of those teachers an average salary of Kshs15,000 per month, it will cost this country Kshs5.4 billion in a year. I was shocked. What is Kshs5.4 billion to a Government which collects Kshs539 billion annually? That is only about 1 per cent of our annual revenue collection. That is what we need to lay this foundation, which is so essential for the education of our kids. Only 1 per cent of our Budget is what is required to remove those teachers from the \"slavery\" kind of environment they serve in and give them formal employment. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Government has given commitment that it will not spare any resource to provide education to our people, because education is so essential for our social and economic development. The countries I cited, namely Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Botswana, provide free pre-primary education. In those countries, kindergarten, nursery and pre- August 15, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3203 primary education is provided for free. In fact, they started with that level before they went to primary and secondary schools and, eventually, universities. So, if this House was able to convince the Government - I am sure that the Government of President Kibaki will be willing to be persuaded, because it has shown commitment to give free primary education - to commit 1 per cent of our annual revenue collection to providing this foundational education for free, we will be achieving four goals. First, we will be giving a good education foundation to our kids. Secondly, given that 46 per cent of Kenyans live below the poverty line, we will be relieving that lot from sacrificing the little resources that they have to pay for that foundational education for their children, which is so essential. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, thirdly, we will be helping those teachers who have offered to provide free services, as if they are slaves. We will be removing them from \"slavery\" to formal employment. Fourthly, we will be providing employment to 30,000 Kenyans. So, we will be achieving four goals at a cost of Kshs5.4 billion, which is less than 10 per cent of what we would have lost in the Anglo Leasing-related scandals, and which is less than 1 per cent of the amount of money we lose in undefended court cases in which the Government is sued by conspiratorial contractors. It will be less than 1 per cent of what we spend lavishly to acquire certain things for this country. So, as I said earlier, this House should be very sympathetic to the poor person in this country. This House should look compassionately at the people who are struggling to provide for the young citizenry of this country. These are the people we tax. We are now in the annual taxation process. We are taxing these people through their purchase of sugar and other food items, their clothing, shelter, et cetera . We should be sympathetic to these people, who cannot afford it, but are sacrificing. That is why we have got 15,000 classrooms for pre-primary education. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are people who say that this Government has not done much, but if it provides this foundation, even the four-year-old and five-year-old children will experience the positive contribution of this country to its citizens. That person, whom we will be moulding, will experience the positive action of this Government. He or she will experience what the older people are experiencing. Older people, like our children in primary school, are enjoying free primary education. From January, 2008, children in secondary education will enjoy partially free secondary education. University students enjoy loans from the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) as well as bursaries. Coffee farmers, sugar-cane farmers and the Kenya Meat Commission have enjoyed loan write-offs. Certain people have enjoyed loan write-offs amounting to Kshs18 billion, which was owed to the National Bank of Kenya. This is an amount of money which can cater for free pre- primary education for three years. The loans that were written-off, whose write-off Parliament approved, were taken by rich defaulters, who can afford to take their small kids to private pre- primary schools. They are people who are able to take two-year-old babies to kindergarten schools. Those are people whose loan write-offs this Parliament approved! I wish we diverted those funds to provide free pre-primary education. It is not only the National Bank of Kenya, we have given up 10 ten per cent of Telkom shareholding in Safaricom. That 10 per cent is worth Kshs1.6 billion. We are giving it out to rich people who can afford to take their children to those pre-primary schools in a Mercedes Benz vehicle. This Parliament and this Government is giving away Kshs1.6 billion worth of shareholding in Telkom Kenya, which belongs to the people of Kenya. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have given out so much money. The amount of money that we have spent in building the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) Headquarters at Upper Hill is Kshs5.3 billion. That is a building which should have cost Kshs1.2 billion, initially. The cost that building has escalated from Kshs1.2 billion five years ago, to Kshs5.3 billion today, and it is incomplete! That amount of money should have been devoted to benefit that small 3204 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES August 15, 2007 child. That child almost walks naked to that pre-primary school. There are many cases where we have spent billions of shillings on items or services that benefit the people who can afford them on their own. So, what I am saying is this: This country, if it wants to develop and, this Parliament, if it wants to represent the views of those who cannot stand up for themselves and defend themselves--- That is the only time we should persuade the Government to support this Motion and support the Bill which is coming. I am sure our Government is very compassionate. The President has shown compassion to the youth of this country, including small children. So, it should not be a big deal to set aside that Kshs5.4 billion and provide that education. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I cannot belabour the point. I am sure all Members of Parliament in this House are aware of the plight of our young kids. They are aware of the deficiencies that affect our children when they enter Standard I. Our primary school teachers, throughout the country, are aware of the problem that they get. The kids who join Standard I are not well prepared. They are not well founded. Our teachers know the problem that is there. They will be grateful to this House and the Government once we provide that education. We could do it with the experts so that, by the beginning of next year, those kids, teachers and parents could get those benefits. With those very many words, I beg to Move. I would like to request Prof. Oniang'o to second."
}