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"id": 213374,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/213374/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Awori",
"speaker_title": "The Vice-President and Minister for Home Affairs",
"speaker": {
"id": 290,
"legal_name": "Moody Arthur Awori",
"slug": "moody-awori"
},
"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I was stating that the FPEP has brought challenges which the Ministry is addressing. We know that classrooms in many schools are accommodating between 70 and 100 children. This is a clear demonstration that our children have a hunger for education. However, I know this July 18, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2621 challenge is being addressed by the Ministry and the communities. Through the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF), communities are increasing the number of classrooms in their schools. The Government also will recruit 11,000 teachers to solve this problem. Over the weekend, the District Education Officer (DEO) in my district informed me that 280 teachers will be recruited there. The personal attention of these pupils will be addressed through this recruitment of additional teachers. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have very few observations in respect of two groups in this country. The first group are the disabled. These observations are really for the future. We have come a long way to recognise that people with disabilities are also citizens of this country. Just before Independence, they had been totally ignored. We then started with special schools. However, by the mid 1980s, we realised that we were still discriminating against people with disabilities through special schools for the disabled. We, therefore, adopted the system of integration. Integration has continued to do fairly well. Then the Ministry started special units. Over a period of time, a sum of Kshs140,000 or Kshs145,000 has been allocated to schools with special units. However, what we have not realised is that we are, therefore, going right back to where we had started and yet, we had agreed to stop discriminating against people with disabilities. I know that we are building special units within the primary schools. When we do so, we will be keeping disabled children from able children. That is discrimination. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in 2003, we passed a Bill here for people with disabilities. We asserted that people with disabilities have got all the rights to education, health and other human rights. What we need to do now for the future is not to have special units in primary schools or secondary schools, but to create an environment where we mix both the able and disabled children in the same classroom. We do not want children with disabilities to be learning in a unit which is 100 yards away from the able children. We do not want them to be in separate classrooms. This creates an inferiority complex. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the second point that I would like to state is that people with disabilities as of now are not actually receiving free primary education. When a child with hearing impairments goes to a primary school, that child must buy hearing aids. If a child is visually impaired, then he or she must have equipment to help him or her to be equal with the others. Such children must do that on their own and, therefore, we cannot say that such children are, indeed, getting free primary education. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, three days ago, I was among those who launched the survey to establish the number of the disabled persons and then classify them. Once we have got this data, I am urging the Ministry of Education to factor in statistics on them. For instance, the Ministry will show us that they need braille equipment for a certain number of children who are visually impaired. The same should apply to children with hearing difficulties who need to be given hearing equipment. Children with physical disabilities need to be given wheelchairs. All these have to be factored in order to equalise these children and then, indeed, they will be getting free primary education. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other group that I would like to talk about are people who are incarcerated behind bars. These are prisoners. They should not lose their human or constitutional rights. If they want to have education, then they must be given all the equipment necessary. We would like, in future, the Ministry to make available funds, so that we have teachers in the prisons to impart education to the prisoners. There should be books, a syllabus and even laboratories in prisons. We know even without this assistance, but with very rudimentary facilities, prisoners are now getting some education. They are sitting for examinations and they are equipping themselves quite well. With those few remarks, I beg to support. 2622 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 18, 2007"
}