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{
"id": 223497,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/223497/?format=api",
"text_counter": 249,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. C. Kilonzo",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 46,
"legal_name": "Charles Mutavi Kilonzo",
"slug": "charles-kilonzo"
},
"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it forms 50 per cent of fees paid in a day school. Not a boarding school. We are talking about approximately a million students. Take an average of Kshs9,000 to be the fees paid in a day school. To comfortably offer free secondary education, we require Kshs9 billion. The deficit is Kshs4.7 billion. If we go back to the number of students, it means we will require Kshs4,700 per student in a day school. This still implies that many poor parents will not afford to pay for secondary education. We have been giving students bursaries of Kshs5,000 each, per year, per student in day school. However, that is still not adequate. These students are still being sent home for lack of school fees. It also means that orphans will still be locked out of school. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, parents have been asked to carter for other costs like those of water, electricity bills and salaries for non-teaching staff. As I said, this forms the remaining 50 per cent which is almost about Kshs5,000 in a day school. The Government should introduce free secondary education in day schools without hesitation. We are not very keen about boarding schools. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for the Government to say they will impose strict guidelines after scrapping tuition fees, it is not realistic. The Government has not been able to control and implement the current fees guidelines. In essence, the Government has only lowered the cost of secondary education. However, we are looking for introduction of free secondary education. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to look at the budget. In the year 2002, the Government collected taxes amounting to about Kshs178 billion. This year, we are talking about a collection of Kshs340 billion. On the other hand we only need Kshs9 billion in order to implement free secondary education in day schools. It can even run to Kshs10 billion. Are we saying that we cannot afford that? The issue is, we have not made our priorities right. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are not restricting ourselves to free secondary education only. We are also talking about youth polytechnics. When you look at the transition rate from primary to secondary schools, this year, there was a lot of excitement that we achieved a 60 per cent transition rate. However, if you look at the dropout rates--- After four years, we have a completion rate of 30 per cent. These are the students who join form one and complete form four. That is why we have a very small number of students in secondary schools; one million! We should be talking of 2.2 million or 2.5 million students in secondary schools. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in this country, the gap between the rich and the poor is very wide. What makes a person poor? A person is poor when he or she cannot feed himself or herself. A person is said to be poor if he or she has no shelter. A person is poor if he or she cannot access health care. Most importantly, a person is poor if he or she cannot access education. There is nothing as painful as having neighbours who are rich and can afford to take children to secondary schools and a poor one who cannot afford the same. We want a country where we have equal opportunities and the children of the poor have the same rights as those of able parents. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are not the first ones in this region to provide free secondary education. We have seen weaker economies, for example our neighbour Uganda, comfortably affording free secondary education. I am told our neighbours Tanzania are in the process of implementing free secondary education. Are we saying that Kenya cannot afford to provide Kshs10 billion for this programme? I do not think so. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if indeed the economy has grown, we need to see it translate directly to the people. One way of doing so is by introducing free secondary eduction."
}