HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 213782,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/213782/?format=api",
"text_counter": 232,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Prof. Olweny",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 122,
"legal_name": "Patrick Ayiecho Olweny",
"slug": "patrick-olweny"
},
"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, that is something to be noted by Parliament. We are approving what is going to be spent by this country for the whole financial year. I did not see anything for my district. Anyway, I want to congratulate the Minister and his Ministry for the project of hiring teachers. It is good. I have seen the number of vacancies that they have advertised. I am only concerned that they are too few for my district. We only have 131 vacancies for primary school teachers. My constituency alone needs over 50 teachers. But that is what the Ministry has given us. I hope that there will be fair distribution this time. Sometimes, the District Education Boards (DEBs), which hire primary school teachers, do not distribute them well. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also wish to congratulate the Minister for waiving tuition fees for secondary schools next year. That is a good move. But Kshs3,000 is not enough. Students attending day schools pay not less than Kshs12,000. We still have a lot of weight on the parents. Many parents are unemployed. We have single parents. It is a difficult thing for them to afford. I wish the Government could have gone a little further by doing a little more for the parents. As I said, Kshs3,000 is not enough. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, quite a lot of money, as indicated in the Printed Estimates, will be used for quality assurance. It has been there every now and then. But quality teaching should be reflected in good results. At least, for my province, we have been having very poor results, year in, year out. Some politicians said that politicians from that province are the ones who make their students fail. I do not know when hon. Members or councillors were employed to teach in schools. We should blame the Ministry when there are poor results, just the same way we blame the Minister of State for Adminstration and National Security when young people are recruited to join the Mungiki sect. We do not blame politicians from areas where those people are being recruited as Mungiki supporters. So, why should politicians from other parts of the country be blamed when there are poor examination results? We need value for our money. We need value for the taxpayers' money in form of good results. The Ministry has to do something about it. Nyanza Province is now well known for poor examination results, year in, year out. We have July 17, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2551 officers and teachers there. Why are students performing poorly? The Ministry has to tell us, and not the politicians. The last time I was in class is when I was at Maseno University. When I was teaching, my students were performing very well. If there was any failure, I did not ask any politician. That is something which the Ministry officials and teachers need to address. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me touch a little on university education in this country. University education is still a little bit expensive. That is one thing the country needs to address. Maybe, we are still not in a position to support everybody who joins a university. That is in terms of scholarships by the Government. But there is the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) facility, which could be extended to everybody. After all, those students will eventually repay that money when they have some sources of income. That money should be given to students in private universities, parallel degree programmes and other colleges, so that everybody has enough money to go to universities and colleges. That needs to be addressed because we have talked about it for a long time in this House. Therefore, it is high time the Ministry paid attention to it. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, looking at the Estimates, I did not see any allocations for research work. Maybe, I need to buy new glasses. Sometime back, we passed a Motion here urging the Government to allocate research institutions and universities enough funds to be able to carry out research work. I do not know whether it comes through some other source, apart from the Estimates. I think that is one thing which needs to be addressed properly. Our professors, students and lecturers need to be facilitated by our Government to do research. This should not be left to donors alone. I know that they get a bit of money from outside the country, through proposals that they write to various donors. However, we also need to allocate good amount of money to our researchers and students who need scholarships for postgraduate studies. That is something the Government needs to address. I do not think it is adequately reflected in the Estimates. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as far as I know, some young universities like Maseno University and Masinde Muliro University do not have adequate facilities for teaching. I do not know who is supposed to buy the facilities for them. If it is the Government, I do not think it is reflected in the Estimates. If the Government will provide funding, at some point, it must be done transparently. It must be approved by us in this House. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, apart from that, I think the Ministry is doing very well. In fact, it is one of the Ministries we are proud of. I congratulate the Minister for his good work. With those comments, I beg to support."
}