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{
    "id": 222570,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/222570/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 148,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Prof. Maathai",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 226,
        "legal_name": "Wangari Muta Maathai",
        "slug": "wangari-maathai"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this Motion. First of all, I would like to thank Mr. Oloo-Aringo for bringing this Motion to the House. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, education is about the most important investment we can make in our country. Taking care of our young people and giving them knowledge are extremely important parts of the responsibility that we ought to embrace both as parents and as Government. Any country that we often quote in this House as we discuss issues, comparing ourselves with them and wondering why they went forward when we remained stagnant or went backwards; often, the difference is that their governments invested in education. Very good examples are India and South Korea. Both countries are very well-known to us. Especially, India provides many personnel that eventually come to work in our country. We also have a country like South Korea, which has been quoted many times in this House. We often say that in the 1970s, Kenya and South Korea were developing at about the same rate, but at a certain time, Korea took off and is now one of the Asian economic tigers. If we ever aspire to be a tiger and develop to the level that many of us hope for, we must invest in education. It is not possible for all parents to provide education for their children, especially in a country where 60 per cent of the people are poor. Quite often, we send our children to school but after the secondary level - sometimes even after the primary level - we are unable to take them forward. So, it is very important for us to depend on the Government to give the necessary primary and secondary education. The country can actually afford it if we were to cut down on some of the luxuries that we give ourselves, especially in the Government. We can manage our Budget and be able to provide free education to our children. After all, we used to say that we could not give free primary education, but the NARC Government has managed to do so. We used to say that we could not give bursaries, but we are now giving many bursaries to our children in secondary schools. In the beginning, we were not giving loans to university students. We now have an established loan system in the universities. So, it is possible to stretch ourselves to manage our resources better and do it without sacrificing too much."
}