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"id": 213765,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Sambu",
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"speaker": {
"id": 137,
"legal_name": "Alfred B. Wekesa Sambu",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I would like to support Vote 31, with the following comments which I hope the Minister will note. First, I would like to say that, yes, come next year, we will support the Government's move to pay tuition for students in secondary schools, at a per capita of Kshs3,600. However, if we do not control the school boards, they will still escalate the fees, to the extent that we will not feel the difference. The boards of governors, these days, are more or less out of control. With all due respect, I would like to tell the Minister that when we, as the District Education Boards (DEBs), send names of people that we nominate to the new boards - because Members of Parliament sit in the boards that nominate the boards of governors for the secondary schools - it takes not less than six months before the names are returned. This actually means that the boards, during that period, act when their terms have expired. Therefore, they act illegally. I do not want to predict, but we will find, one day, a school being sued and the board will have been found to have been acting illegally, because its term has expired and it has not been renewed. So, I would like to ask the Minister - because Cap.211 of the Education Act, at the moment, says that the Minister is the only one who should sign - to make amendments to the Education Act, in order to allow, maybe, the Permanent Secretary or any other officer to be able to sign the list of names of people who are recommended to the DEBs. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to thank the Government for fast-tracking the payment of increased teachers' salaries, which were based on the 1997 agreement. However, I would like the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to be fair in terms of promotion of teachers. There is something that is seriously lacking in the TSC. I am happy that officers from the TSC are here, because I will be saying more things, again, about the TSC. The promotion of primary and secondary school teachers is not being done fairly. Therefore, even as we increase teachers' salaries, their promotion is not done equitably. Whereas I have said that, when we implement the new Act, which the Minister says that is forthcoming, the TSC should remain as the employing body for the teachers. When we were in Bomas, the views of many Kenyans were that the TSC should remain intact. Although we did not adopt the Bomas Draft, we still got the feeling of what Kenyans want. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, several areas of the Education Act require updating. Since the Bill is not published, I do not want to pre-empt debate. But I would like to say that the Ministry should go out and hear views from the stakeholders. This is because if we just make laws here without getting the stakeholders' views, we will end up making laws which do not suit Kenyans. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when the Minister was moving the Vote, he mentioned something about supporting orphans and children with special needs. I would like to say that the schools for disabled, blind and deaf children should be helped 100 per cent. But you will July 17, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2545 find that in a family where disability is inherited genetically, for example, the parents cannot even support the children. But when they take their children to schools for children with disabilities and they are asked to pay Kshs20,000 or Kshs30,000, and yet, they are also disabled, how will they support these children? We should fully support these schools for people with disabilities, so that they can accommodate the children. Where the parent, of course, has the resources and he wants to send his child to a better school, that will be up to him to do so. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) has helped Kenyans to build many schools, especially, secondary schools. In my constituency, for example, the number of schools has increased from 15 to over 40 schools. We have laboratories which have been constructed, but there is no assistance at all from the Ministry. I would like to request the Ministry, given its huge budget, to help in equipping laboratories. It is a crucial thing, because when we try to equip them using the CDF money, sometimes we do not get the right equipment, yet, we require standardised equipment, because students sit for similar examinations countrywide. Therefore, the Government should supply the laboratory equipment. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as my colleagues said earlier, universities are now turning out to be commercial institutions, and yet all the public universities; from the first ones, including University of Nairobi and Kenyatta University to the new ones, including Maseno University, were all built using Government resources. But now, they are admitting more students to undertake parallel programmes, because they have set very high cut-off points for joining regular programmes. These students do not get loans from the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB), which gives out loans. God willing, and I wish there will be time, I will bring a Motion to say that all Kenyan students who go to universities which are recognised by Kenyan law should be given loans through the HELB. Why do we have to discriminate thereby making other students remain at home and yet they passed their examinations? By simply failing to get one or two points, they cannot qualify to get the loans from HELB! We want that to be done. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, because we want to increase the number of pupils transiting from primary schools to secondary schools, we should have more day schools, as my colleagues said earlier on. What are these things called provincial schools? What do they get for being provincial schools? We build the schools. I have written to this Ministry--- My people build the schools and then they are baptised \"Provincial Schools\". Children are brought from outside my area to join these schools and yet we sold our cattle to build them. That is not right! This is where you go sanctioning communities. We want our schools to take as many children as possible from the local area. Let them be day schools. In Arid and Semi-Arid Land (ASAL) areas, I support the establishment of boarding schools. That is fine. What is in a boarding school, anyway? It is just about eating food in the evening and watching television. What we want is the child to get education. Education is found in the classroom and not the dormitories. In fact, many of the problems arise from the dormitories. If you are keen and you, actually, listen to the radio and watch television, you will realise that there are so many problems in boarding schools. They all arise, not from the classroom, but from the dormitories. This issue of forcing schools to be provincial schools is not right. These schools were built by our communities, so let them have the right of controlling them. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to thank the Ministry because we have seen in the newspapers that they are going to employ more primary school and secondary school teachers. In secondary schools, it is okay because the schools have been listed. The problem is in the employment of primary school teachers. In my own constituency, in the last two recruitments, the TSC removed teachers from Mosop and they put in--- Because they keep on referring to some year, 1995--- This time I will go to court. This time I will wait when they are campaigning. When the Minister will be campaigning, I will say, \"You have always discriminated against Mosop\". And you tell us, \"1995\". Why? If teachers who have trained from my area graduated in 2001, why 2546 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 17, 2007 should you remove them from the list because somebody has come to Kapsabet Town? They come and buy identity cards and then pretend that they have been in Kapsabet all along and then you remove--- Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, out of the 17 chances that we were given last year, we shared them between two constituencies, that is, Emgwen got nine while Mosop got eight. We passed that because the Ministry conducted the interviews and we, as the District Education Board (DEB), in which my friend, hon. Tarus, the District Commissioner as Chairman and I sat, sent the names to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), but the TSC eliminated all the names of children from Mosop. When the Minister will be replying, I want him to say why these children from Mosop were eliminated. Finally, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to say that when employing teachers this time, they should be employed on constituency basis. Constituency basis! Constituency basis and nothing else! I beg to support."
}