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"speaker_name": "Mr. Karaba",
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"legal_name": "Daniel Dickson Karaba",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this chance to support the Ministry of Education for its very good work for the time the current Minister has been there. Members of staff in the Ministry have also done a commendable job. I would like to dispel the fears expressed by some hon. Members of this House to the effect that the Ministry's officials at Jogoo House comprise of people from one region. That is not true, because even the demographic patterns in the country are all reflected in that Ministry. So, you find people from all areas in the Ministry. Therefore, that allegation is not true. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Ministry of Education is a service Ministry. As such, we should not be thinking that it has a lot of money even when it is given Kshs120 billion to run the services. As we know, without education, this country will not head anywhere. It is for that reason, therefore, that we should be supporting the Ministry of Education's expenditure, and in that way support the services that the Ministry continues to offer. We have schools, right from pre-primary to primary, secondary up to university. What we see registered at the university level is not a replica of what comes from secondary schools. You find that very many students qualify to join university after secondary school education, but they do not access the universities, just because the university admission cut-off point is too high. I am told that even Grade \"B+\" no longer takes one to university. One has to score a mean grade of \"A-\" to qualify for admission to university. To score grade \"A-\", particularly for students from schools in the rural areas, is a problem. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are, therefore, asking the Ministry of Education to consider lowering the admission grades to public universities, or start more universities in those areas, where those students come from, or provide funding, through the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB), to those students who score the minimum university admission qualification of mean grade \"C+\". If that happens, we will encourage and motivate even the teachers who teach in those schools. You will also note that students who qualify for HELB loans are only those who get admission to the regular university programmes, and not those in the parallel programme. Students who are in the parallel programme, which is referred to as \"Module II\", did not join those programmes out of their own choice. Some of them would like to get superior degrees but they cannot do so in public universities. So, this should not be seen to be a reason for not giving students pursuing parallel degree programmes HELB loans. I would, therefore, urge the Ministry of Education to re-consider this matter, so that those who join the parallel degree programmes are accorded loans, just like their counterparts in public and private universities. There is no difference between privately-sponsored student pursuing studies in a private university and one pursuing studies through the parallel degree programme in a public university. So, I do not understand why HELB cannot give loans to students pursuing university education through the parallel programmes in public universities. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, you also note that in order to join university, one must pass seven subjects. Most of those subjects are compulsory. One has to pass two science subjects out of three - Physics, Chemistry or Biology. The other compulsory subjects are Mathematics and the two language. You are left with only one applied and one humanity subject. For one to pass in those subjects, therefore, one has to have proper science equipment. Such equipment is not there in July 17, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2549 some schools, particularly those in the rural areas. You find that some schools in the rural areas are disadvantaged compared to those in urban set-ups. You realise that those students who join the universities are from either the private academies or some very good provincial schools. That makes those students studying in the rural areas never to get admission to universities, because they cannot make it. They have to pass some of the compulsory subjects, and these cannot even be offered because their schools have no facilities. Therefore, you cannot compare somebody who is doing Physics in a school in Garbatula, or somewhere in Garissa or Marsabit, to another student who is doing the same subject in Alliance High School. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in some cases, students have to use electricity, but that electricity is not even available in the rural areas. How then do you compare a student studying under such an environment to another student who has access to all the required facilities? I would, therefore, ask the Ministry of Education to have the Kenya National Examinations Council set examinations which are suitable for the rural schools rather than favour those ones in urban centres; the current set-up is discriminatory. We have the same parents continuing to have their children dominating admission to universities and provincial schools. That is a very serious oversight. You also note that the number of our schools are increasing. Following the introduction of the Free Primary Education, the number of pupils in primary schools increased by between 1.2 and 2 million. If you divide 2 million pupils by 40, which is the ideal teacher to pupil ratio, you will realise that we require more than 60,000 teachers. We are deceiving ourselves because there was an increase of 2 million students and we have not increased the number of teachers to cope with them. That translates to poor quality of education. That means that students who will join secondary schools and universities might be raw-baked. Eventually, they might not be very useful to our country. I would like to ask the Ministry to hire more teachers. We are deceiving ourselves when we say that an increase of about two million students can be handled by 4,000 teachers. That number of teachers cannot do much. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, every other year, we recruit teachers. Most of the time, the recruited teachers are to replace those who have passed on or retired. We have only recruited about 4,000 teachers this year. Those teachers are not enough to cope with the increased number of students. When we are told to provide facilities for primary school students to join secondary schools, we put up secondary schools using our Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) money. When we do that, we create another problem. We cannot get teachers until that school has 100 students. To get 100 students, a school has to run for about four years. If a class starts with only 40 students, by the time those students reach Form II, they will run away because they have no teachers. By the time they get to Form III, they will not even be there because there will be no facilities to continue with their studies. When will those schools pick up? The only thing we can do is encourage the newly built schools by providing them with teachers and science equipment. That way, students in those schools can be retained. Our retention rate, therefore, in most day schools, is negligible. We are not making it possible. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, quality education is hampered by poor supervision of teachers. The inspectorate is under-staffed. We need to increase the number of Quality Assurance Officers. In some districts, there are none. In the new districts, there is no hope of getting even half. What I am recommending is that, as much as we continue employing teachers, let us think about the headquarters. We have to increase the officers in the Inspectorate Division. Let us recruit more officers so that they are able to assess and inspect the kind of education that we are giving our children. The issue of textbooks is another problem. Every year, new books are released. Every time 2550 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 17, 2007 new books are released, that calls for money, which is not available. Education, therefore, becomes very expensive. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to support."
}