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"speaker_name": "Mr. Angwenyi",
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"legal_name": "Jimmy Nuru Ondieki Angwenyi",
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"content": "The officers at the Ministry have also worked very hard to deliver a very important service to our people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also like to thank the Ministry as a representative of the people who live around the Kisii highlands, for upgrading teachers training college at Kisii to a constituent university college. I believe that university college had started business from 1st, July, 2007. If it has not, I hope it will start business by the time we pass this Vote. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Ministry consumes nearly 25 per cent of our 2552 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 17, 2007 budget. I know it is an important Ministry, but we also have others that are also important. For example, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Roads and Public Works. However, this Government has decided to give an overwhelming support to this Ministry. It is good that they have actually delivered on that support. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are challenges. The first challenge is that we started to give free education from primary schools to secondary schools. However, we have forgotten that before a pupil joins Standard One, he or she goes through nursery and pre-primary school. I hope the Ministry will address that issue by the time the Minister responds tomorrow. Are they going to provide free nursery and pre-primary education to our children? We need to lay the foundation at that level. If the foundation is well laid at that level, then we know that we are developing an all-rounded human being. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the same issue, I would like to say that I will bring a Motion to this House to provide for free nursery and pre-primary education. I hope that the Minister will second the Motion when it comes up either tomorrow or next week. We need to demonstrate that what has been done in primary and secondary school can be extended to the foundation of education in this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have problems on policy contradictions. At one time, the Minister directed us to use our Constituencies Development Funds (CDF) to build more classrooms in secondary schools. However, once we have devoted so much resources to do so, we do not get teachers and other facilities to enable us utilise the facilities. In my constituency, about two years ago, we built six secondary schools. The schools admitted students. Each one of them has in excess of 160 students, yet to date, they have neither been registered nor provided with teachers. Therefore, the community is contributing funds to employ the so called Board of Governors (BOG) teachers. I hope the Minister will look into that issue so that resources we have devoted to create more classrooms and schools can be utilised for the benefit of this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have a problem at the universities. The Ministry has said that anybody with Grade C-plus and above, is eligible to join university. However, admissions to public universities have been constrained because of accommodation. Why can we not provide day universities for our students? This happens all over the world. Let a student choose to stay at the university or outside, so long as he or she can get the education. Some of us are thinking that maybe the universities have conspired to limit regular student admission so as to raise money from Module II students. That will make education in this country a rich man's service. If you have money, you will be able to push your child through university because you can pay for Module II. The poor man and woman will not be able to have a brilliant child join university because of lack of money to pay for Module II. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we need to increase the number of national schools throughout the country. Why do we hang on to what we were given to us by the colonial government? Why can we not build national schools - or we can call them modern schools - in all districts? Such schools should be given all the facilities to perform well. That way, we can get equitable development in education. We should also have special programmes in that Ministry. We should, for instance, have special programmes for building schools and providing facilities which are not enjoyed by the rest of Kenyans. You need to go to the Ministry to discover that it has special programmes to give facilities such as science equipment to schools. Those facilities are supposed to be distributed equitably in the entire country. So, the Ministry should address the issue of equitable distribution of those resources to support Kenyan education. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is a problem with Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT). Recently, a Commission gave a report that Teachers Service Commission (TSC) should be scrapped. The TSC is performing a very important task in this country. I wish to say that Parliament will not approve that TSC should be scrapped. The Kamunge Report--- July 17, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2553 Kamunge was in education 100 years ago. He has not kept abreast with the current developments. I do not think he has really learnt what the TSC provides for this country. So, the Minister should avoid, at all cost, to recommend for the scrapping of TSC. Finally, on the issue of fees, the Ministry gives fees guidelines every year. But those guidelines are never followed. We do not know whether they will be followed this coming year! Could the Minister come up with sanctions against those teachers or schools which do not follow his guidelines, so that we can relief our parents? Imagine, for instance, a poor man's child goes to Nairobi school, Alliance Girls or Kenya High School and he or she is required to pay fees to the tune of about Kshs40,000. They are also required to buy other things to the tune of Kshs50,000. We all know that 60 per cent of Kenyans live below poverty line. How can those people who live below poverty line afford to take their children to Alliance, Kenya High or other schools that perform well? We are condemning the poor parents. We are creating two classes of people in this country through our education system. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}