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"id": 222597,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Oloo-Aringo",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, may I thank all hon. Members who have contributed to this Motion. I would like also to thank those hon. Members who support it, but did not get the opportunity to contribute. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also like to thank the Government for supporting this Motion. I was very impressed by the Assistant Minister for Education. He made very useful contribution. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to assure hon. Members that immediately they give me the permission, I will go straight to the drawing-board and start the drafting of the Bill to be able to amend the Education Act. This Act is outdated. Indeed, having served as the Minister for Education, Science and Technology, I remember proposing to bring these amendments. However, the systems were different and I received a lot of opposition from within the Government itself. Therefore, this has been in abeyance all this time. Now that we have a more open system, I would be very happy to bring the amendments which I had proposed in order to give this country free and compulsory primary and secondary education. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I think hon. Members now have to redefine what basic education is. Basic education comprises pre-primary, primary and secondary education. The whole concept of basic education will change. Instead of looking at it simply as pre-primary and primary, it will now cover all the three spheres; pre-primary, primary and secondary education. It is important that we extend free and compulsory education to secondary schools, so that we can provide our children with basic skills of literacy and numeracy. But even more important to 1190 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES May 9, 2007 prepare them for professional and vocational institutions. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I mourn the death of youth polytechnics. These institutions have a critical role to play and yet, they were allowed to die. That is why I sometimes say that this Government has let the people of Kenya down. During the last campaigns, the NARC team promised to revamp youth polytechnics. However, until today, no mention has been made of youth polytechnics. Even though the Minister in charge of youth affairs has spoken well just now, but he has not done anything about youth polytechnics. To me, it is the provision of sellable skills. Kenyans can then have skills with which they can earn a living. This could be either in self employment or wage employment. Therefore, provision of vocational institutions that can accommodate graduates of basic education is lacking in our education system. Today, we have large numbers of Kenyans who are in the boda boda industry. This is not a very viable industry, so we cannot expect those who have graduated from the university or high school to join it. This is because in itself cannot expand. It is, therefore, for that reason that we need an overhaul of the entire education system, so that it can provide both practical and academic work for all students. That is what we are lacking. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, all countries that have industrialised have done so because they have provided the necessary skills to their people. It is the human resource that brings about change. We can get our example from what is called the industrial countries of South-East Asia. For example, Kwan Li Jung who was the Prime Minister of Singapore decided to put emphasis on the development of human resource. He expanded education and produced quality citizens. They are now able to export quality people all around South-East Asia. I recently visited Malaysia. I was impressed by the effort the Malaysian Government has made in the areas of providing middle level training colleges for its people. It has now become an industrialised country because of the human resource. We cannot industrialise until we invest in our people. The people are the engines of development. It is the people who determine how the resources of a country are distributed. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to encourage that an issue such as this, should not be---"
}