HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 219881,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/219881/?format=api",
"text_counter": 335,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Rutto",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 323,
"legal_name": "Sammy Kipkemoi Rutto",
"slug": "sammy-rutto"
},
"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am talking about the girl-child education in those areas. Those are the marginalised areas and groups. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in some of these areas also, children are not sufficiently supported by their families. Families, perhaps, do not see education as being very important for their children and, therefore, they do not support them sufficiently in matters of education, because of other pressings needs which have to do with satisfaction of basic needs. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the third factor which affects access to education, are physical facilities. The Motion specifically mentions that the Government should be urged to build more schools which are more equipped than those which are there today. Children in those areas are also affected by distances between schools and homes. Children have to travel long distances to reach school. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I had a chance to visit schools in the Southern and Northern Coast as a member of the Departmental Committee on Education, Research and Technology. When you look at the children in some of those places, you sympathise because at the end of the day, they are more tired than when going through education provision. Lack of teachers, as the Mover of the Motion has mentioned, is rampant in some of those areas. The motivation to go to school is also very low because those places do not have sufficient role models. On the quality of education, curriculum development in some of those areas is very weak. In other words, teachers do not have sufficient time to merge curriculum needs with the needs of the children, to the extent that they can improve the quality of education of those children. We are saying that the enormous problem that children go through in those places is just unimaginable. 1554 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES May 23, 2007 Children do not cover the curriculum sufficiently. At the end of the year, children have not covered what they were supposed to cover in school for them to be prepared enough to go through the challenges of examination. We are saying that the Government needs to move with speed and to put more effort in the development of education in those marginal areas than, perhaps, they pay attention to other endowed places. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we need to know and understand that education is a basic human right. The moment we subject our children in certain places of this country to conditions which are not favourable to access quality education, we are, essentially, denying those children access to education as a basic human right. Education as a basic human right involves viewing education as providing means for the children to access values. Values make us different from animals. I know scientists define us as animals. However, we are special animals in the sense that being human, involves getting access to values. When we get access to those values only through education--- The moment we do not give access to education sufficiently to certain sectors of our population, it means we are denying them access to basic values. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, secondly, education as a basic human right involves access to knowledge and understanding. We cannot deny the fact that education makes, in fact, our children access knowledge. The moment you deny those children access to knowledge in a very specific way, it means we are reducing their values as human beings. That would mean, denying them access to skills; life or vocational skills. The point that education is life does not need to be emphasised here. When we provide education that is not sufficiently geared towards developing the lives of our children, it means we are denying those children a basic right and basic avenues to fullness of life in that sense. That is why we are urging the Government to stress the provision of facilities and equipment to schools in the marginalised areas. We need to provide those avenues so that education can be meaningful to children in those areas. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we also talk of education being power; indeed, education is power. The moment we do not provide education, it means we disempower those children. In other words, we provide opportunities that are not sufficiently suited accessing power. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish to say that education is also wealth in a very fundamental way. Education has a capacity to distribute wealth between the poor and the rich. The moment you deny children access to opportunities to fulfilling education, it means that we are not addressing the distribution of wealth as well. In other words, the Motion is timely. The Government needs to put up more schools in those marginalised areas particularly the development of centres of excellence. The Ministry of Education---"
}