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"id": 209854,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/209854/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Mwiria",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Education",
"speaker": {
"id": 190,
"legal_name": "Valerian Kilemi Mwiria",
"slug": "kilemi-mwiria"
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to speak in favour of this Motion. First, I would like to appreciate the developments that have taken place in the area of secondary school education in the last few years. Transition rates from primary to secondary school education have increased from 45 per cent to 46 per cent in 2003 to 60 per cent in 2006. We are getting closer to our target of 70 per cent which we hope to achieve in the next three years. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Motion will address the problem facing many students from poor families who cannot remain in secondary school. I would like to re-affirm that the Government has been committed to this as evidenced by the provision of bursaries to needy students. From 2003 up to now, a sum of Kshs4.2 billion has already been allocated to children from needy families in the form of bursaries. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have also started a programme of providing grants to Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL). We have set fees guidelines for different categories of schools even though we are still struggling with the idea of the process of ensuring that most headteachers 3026 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES August 8, 2007 actually implement those guidelines. We have provided grants in areas of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), laboratory equipment and many other grants for schools in pockets of poverty to ensure that, again, we lighten the load of education for parents. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, nevertheless, poverty remains a big problem. There is still a big challenge. This is why poor Kenyans owe many schools up to Kshs14 billion. As you know, this has been a matter of great debate even in this Parliament. There are many reasons that account for that, including the fact that 46 per cent of our people more or less live below the poverty line. Secondary education continues to be expensive in certain cases, especially when you have boarding schools. There are many indirect charges, including things like uniforms, transport, visiting days, pocket money and so on. There is high cost of boarding secondary schools and parents continue to prefer them even though they are much more expensive. The fees they charge is an average of Kshs26,000 compared to Kshs10,000 for day schools. The impact of HIV/AIDS scourge where we have many orphans who, in spite of the support that they get from the Government, the challenge remains still a big one. The slum communities, ASAL areas and pockets of poverty, students in those kinds of communities are much more disadvantaged and find it difficult to, first, join and then remain in secondary schools. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in this regard and in addition to what I have just said, several measures are being taken to ensure that we keep more of our children in schools. The tuition waiver that we already know about it - there will be a benefit of like Kshs3,600 per student effective in January 2008 - will complement already other existing resources. In subsequent years, we hope to take over tuition expenses in the whole secondary school system. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have also formed a task force to come up with ways of making education more affordable. It is hoped that there will be guidelines to address issues such as the high indirect cost of secondary education. We also hope to increase and improve the management of the Constituency Bursary Fund. Already, it used to be Ksh700 million in 2004. It has gone up to Kshs800 million and we hope to do more. Even with that, it remains a problem. So, I do agree with those who say that maybe we should do more even though the private sector is heavily taxed. I think we should reach out more and ask it to do a little bit more in terms of ensuring that we have more of our children enter secondary school and remain there. This must be done, in conjunction, with other measures. It is not enough to ask the private sector to do so much when it is not clear that enough is being done to give that sector incentives to produce more and give more to the wider public. So, as much as we ask the private sector to do that, I think it is also the responsibility of the Government to ensure that the private sector has the right infrastructure and climate to do business and anything else that will make those involved in this sector to feel that, on fact, they have a reason to give back. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in requesting the private sector to do more, we are aware that the Ministry of Education, already, is allocated the biggest share of our national Budget and sometimes in the last few years. The Ministry of Education accounts for more than four or five ministries put together in terms of the amount of money that is voted. So, the resources will also limit how much you can keep on asking from that national kitty to supplement or to give more to education. Therefore, the private sector, like some Members have said, some of them are making a lot of profits. If they donated 5 per cent of those profits to support education even in areas where they are doing the most business, that will make a big difference. But it cannot just be the big companies. There are people who have businesses on their own like family businesses who are doing very well. There are farm owners and companies that are involved in tea and coffee production. There are companies that are doing well. There are also individual Kenyans who are wealthy in their own respect. Therefore, this levy should not just go to private sector in the form of companies, but also to individuals who are doing business or who are well endowed in many ways. August 8, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3027 Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the private sector benefits the most from our education system. Even though a lot of our graduates end up working with the Government in the public sector, especially with regard to teachers, the private sector benefits from the training of our universities. Most of the people who work in private companies in this country or for individuals who have businesses, have come out from our public universities that are funded through public resources. Therefore, it would not be too much to ask that they give back by way of compensating even for that training. This is because elsewhere most companies are responsible for training their own human resources. They also employ our graduates. With the current system where even employees can go to universities, again, they are getting their skills upgraded in public universities, without necessarily having to pay for it. Even though some of these companies do some scholarship support for some of their employees, but they continue to gain from the bulk of the training for which they are not paying directly."
}