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"speaker_name": "Mr. Muturi",
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"legal_name": "Justin Bedan Njoka Muturi",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this chance to say a few words about this Ministry's Vote - Vote 31. From the outset, I would like to commend the Ministry. The Minister, in his speech today, has just raised the very issue of transition rates from primary to secondary schools. We can be proud that, within four years, we can talk about having risen from 47 per cent to 60 per cent. But connected to that improvement is the fact that, in all areas across the country, there will, obviously, be the need to have more secondary schools. As we strive to increase the transitional rate from primary to secondary to beyond 80 per cent, obviously, the need for more secondary schools will have to be addressed. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in a cunning way - welcomely - I do appreciate that the Minister for Finance reduced the Development Vote of the Ministry of Education by Kshs1.142 billion in this year's Budget. I think what he has done is to take advantage of the realization that most hon. Members, through their Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) kitty, have taken up the expansion and construction of new secondary schools in a bid to address this need, which is, obviously, up-most in everybody's mind. If you have so many kids transiting from primary schools, they will need to have some good secondary schools. Therefore, I think the Minister for Finance must have toyed with the idea of where to place part of the Development Vote. Still attached to this transition, and the Minister did speak about it, is the fact that, as more July 17, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2541 and more of our students get secondary education, more and more will, therefore, obviously qualify for admission into public universities. We now need to address this issue squarely. Is it right for us to continue saying publicly that any student who attains Grade \"C+\" qualifies for university education while, at the same time, we know that the reality now, in light of the many students who are qualifying, you need to have some certain form of Grade \"B+\" minimum, to be admitted to a public university. While on this point, the issue that I want to address is this: Many of those schools that have come up, have come up in marginal areas. Those are the areas that never used to receive enough funding. They have been addressed through the CDF. Therefore, we have a situation here where, in very many of those areas, many kids who attain Grade \"C+\", \"B-\" or \"B\" will not qualify for admission to public universities, merely because of what they are calling the \"cut-off\", which is set by the Joint Admissions Board (JAB). So, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we will end up having students being admitted to public universities and accessing loans from Higher Educations Loans Board (HELB) - those who come from what you would call \"academies\", national and a few provincial schools. The import of that is obvious. A lot of those \"regulars\" in marginal areas, or what used to be called \"unproductive Kenya\" by the colonialists, will continue to lag behind in the area of provision of university education. Therefore, the issue I am trying to raise is this: Is there a need for us to look at the HELB Act and try to align it with the reality that we have kids who qualify for admission into public universities, but they cannot be admitted on account of the cut-off points put in place by JAB? We should look for ways--- Those kids cannot even access parallel education because their parents find it very difficult to afford it. They are the ones who are actually saying \"Haleluia\" because of the free tuition which is coming in January, 2008! So, we have a situation which is a little untenable. Kids will get Grade \"B\" out there, and they cannot be admitted to public universities. They cannot even pursue parallel degree programmes because they cannot qualify for loans under HELB. So, I want to urge the Ministry, in a holistic way, to address this issue and see how best we can, in an affirmative way, solve that problem. We have far too many kids out there who feel they are qualified because they are told that the qualifying mark is \"C+\". So, we actually end up creating a very, very big group of discontented pupils, students or school leavers out there, who cannot get education. Yet, there are more affluent brothers and sisters from various places whose parents are able to afford parallel education in public universities and they attained Grade \"B\". Therefore, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I really want to appeal to the Ministry to see how best that situation could be addressed. Even if we need to look at the HELB Act, we need to address it pragmatically without having to bury our heads in the sand, and refusing to face the reality on the ground. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I welcome the fact that Teachers Service Commission (TSC) is now getting funding to put up its new headquarters. I am aware, through the Public Investments Committee (PIC), that TSC spends close to Kshs100 million every year in paying rent for their current building. I have argued in the past that, that does not make sense to me. They continue spending so much money renting space, when they can actually get an allocation from the Government to put up their headquarters. That issue could be addressed in one, two or three financial years. Then, after that, what used to go towards rent would be a thing of the past. That is something welcome and I congratulate the Minister for that. There is the issue of the people called Quality Assurance Officers. My interaction with them is quite intense. I spend between 47.5 per cent and 49 per cent of my Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) money on education sector alone. There are people called the Quality Assurance Officers. These are the people who need to be trained. I do not understand what quality some of them can actually go to assure. They need so much thorough training. Some cannot even address you or gatherings comprising of teachers whom they even go to inspect, in proper English. You wonder 2542 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 17, 2007 where they went to school and yet they have been given the responsibilities of Quality Assurance Officers. It is something good to have them but they should be of quality, they should be duly qualified and capable of ensuring that what happens in schools is something that is going to be of benefit to the country and to the learners themselves. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with regard to African Development Bank (ADB) and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) grants, I know that they have been coming in a very haphazard way. I hope that can be improved. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}