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"id": 209851,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/209851/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. ole Metito",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister, Ministry of State for Youth Affairs",
"speaker": {
"id": 199,
"legal_name": "Judah Katoo Ole-Metito",
"slug": "judah-ole-metito"
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I want to contribute in support of this Motion. Education is very vital for the development of any country. First of all, we want to appreciate the measures the Government has put in place with regard to the education of our children, starting with the introduction of the Free Primary Education (FPE) to the proposed waiver of tuition fees at secondary school level. However, there is still a lot to be done. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, now we are talking about the proposed free secondary school education, but there is a lot to be done because as we speak, many certificates are detained in secondary schools because the students owe the schools an estimated Kshs15 billion in fees arrears. If by the end of the academic year a student cannot get his certificate, he will not have anything substantial to show that he went through the secondary school education or claim that he has the skills required for further education in his life. We are also talking about the bursaries that the Government has given to secondary schools. However, this is not enough because even the criteria and the procedure for awarding bursaries is not really friendly to the poor and the most disadvantaged students. For those who receive the bursary, it is not even enough. You will find that a student from a very poor background, who is required to pay Kshs30,000 in a year, gets Kshs5,000 a year through the bursary scheme. This leaves the poor student to look for the balance of Kshs25,000. This means that he will not complete his or her secondary education. Secondly, one of the criteria for a student to get some bursary is that he or she must have reported and been admitted in a certain secondary school. You cannot be admitted to a secondary school if you do not have the initial school fees. That is why I am saying that the bursary scheme procedure is not friendly to the needy. We also have orphans who cannot even benefit from the free primary education because of lack of food at home. These pupils need a lot of assistance. That is why we are proposing the establishment of an Education Levy Fund. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me talk about some of the levy funds that we have in our country and the way they are assisting the relevant sectors. For instance, through the Fuel Levy Fund, a lot of money is being raised by the Ministry of Roads and Public Works. In return, a lot of money is being ploughed into that sector. In this year's Budget, we witnessed an increase in the allocation to that Ministry. One of the contributory factors is that the Fuel Levy Fund is really efficient and it is raising a lot of money for that sector. We are seeing a lot of improvement in our infrastructure. We also have the Catering Levy Fund where money is being raised from hotels to the August 8, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3023 Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife. We are told that this sector recorded the highest growth rate in this year's Economic Survey. It recorded a 15 per cent growth rate. One of the factors that have contributed to that growth is the Catering Levy Fund. The money is being ploughed back into the parent Ministry and a lot of improvements are coming up in that sector in terms of hotel beds and security for the tourists. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the CDF is more like a levy fund. We are witnessing a lot of growth with regard to where the CDF money is being ploughed back to. This could be attributed to the recent elevation of our country from the poor nations to the developing nations. It is because of the funds that are being devolved to our sectors. So, if we establish the Education Levy Fund, collect money and plough it back to the education sector, we will see a lot of improvement and this will be one of the ways of attaining the Vision 2030. If we are talking about Vision 2030, and we are saying that we will have to be an industrialised country by the year 2030, then we must be a well educated society. Everybody would like to support the creation of this Fund. The only problem is how it is going to be constituted. We should make it a contributory Fund, whereby the Government contributes a certain percentage, just like we do in the CDF. We are seeing a lot of private companies making a lot of profits. For example, the mobile phone service providers like Safaricom and Celtel, banks and the Kenyans in the diaspora. If we can make these institutions contribute a certain percentage towards the Education Levy Fund, we will attain a lot of growth. Even if we get free secondary school education, we will still need money for those students in university. The loans they get from the High Education Loans Board (HELB) are not enough for the students to complete their education. We have students in private universities, who are not there because they can afford to pay the fees required, but because they have qualified to join universities and our public universities cannot accommodate all of them. The same case applies to students in the Parallel Degree Programmes. Our universities cannot accommodate all these students and so, they need a lot of assistance. If the Education Levy Fund is created, it is going to complement the HELB with regard to higher education. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have students in tertiary institutions, for example, medical training colleges, teacher training colleges and polytechnics, who also need some assistance in pursuit of their education. Once this Education Levy Fund is created, it is going to benefit everybody. It is high time the Government took some steps towards the formation of the Education Levy Fund. The Government should compel or just put a regulatory framework for all the other sectors to contribute towards this very important Fund. Once this Fund is established, it is going to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor. Most of us are investing a lot in education and that is what is making the gap between the rich and the poor widen. If education for all could be supported, the gap between the rich and the poor would be narrowed. With those few remarks, I beg to support the Motion."
}