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"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/223506/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Mwiria",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Education",
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"id": 190,
"legal_name": "Valerian Kilemi Mwiria",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to support this Motion or, at least, give some direction. As a Government, we are not against it. The Government cannot be against such a good idea as this one. I would like to congratulate Mr. Aringo for coming up with this good idea. I would like to challenge him for not coming up with it many years ago. He could have implemented it because he May 2, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1055 had more money when he was the Minister for Education. However, I must give him credit because when he was the Minister for Education in those difficult days, I was doing a research project on universities. He granted me an opportunity to interview him even though I had been thrown out of the university. The then Vice-Chancellor of the university, who was under him, could not grant me an interview. Although he operated in a system where he found it very difficult to get out, he was still a democrat. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it goes without saying that, as a Government, we support this Motion. His Excellency the President spoke about it yesterday. We have spoken about this issue before. Sessional Paper No.1 of 2005 is very clear about it. Our parents want it. Most of our parents are poor. About 60 per cent of our population is in trouble. Therefore, affording expensive education is a real problem. It is also in keeping with our commitment to development through Vision 2030. All the things that we have been talking about will not be accomplished if we do not educate our people beyond primary education. Countries that have made a difference are those that have embraced secondary education in terms of development. We have examples of Japan and the Asian \"tigers\". Those countries have put more money beyond primary education to support secondary education institutions. Already, even in terms of practice, we are headed in that direction. The idea of day schools that have improved transition to secondary education to almost 70 per cent now, is an indication of our commitment to ensure that many young people benefit from secondary school education. Other interventions like the bursary school programme are also supposed to make it easier for our children to go through secondary schools. But we have to do more. It will not be a reality unless we do more. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Free Primary Education Programme (FPEP) is a good thing. But it is only basic education. In many countries of the world now, the new basic education level is secondary education. Therefore, that should be our target. Secondly, secondary school education is a real bottle-neck for many Kenyans. Most of our children can go through primary school education because it is free. University education is affordable because there is a lot of support from the Government. But the real bottle-neck is to move from primary level to university level. In many ways, it is a contradiction! We would like to support FPEP, support university education to make it affordable, but make it difficult for children to graduate from primary level to university level. We must support secondary education to bridge that gap and enable our students to benefit from actual university education. We cannot benefit from it unless we go through secondary education. Obviously, issues to do with boarding schools have to be discussed. That is where most of the expenses are. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, saying and getting committed is one thing. Yes! We may say that education is every child's right. The Bomas Constitution may say: \"Yes, we need to educate our children. It is a right that they be educated up to 12 years.\" But that is not enough. The Constitution does not provide the money. We must go beyond signing United Nations (UN) charters and so on. That is not where the money is. The money has to be provided. The real challenge is to implement all the good theoretical ideas that we put in paper. It is true that Germany, America, Japan and other countries are doing much better than us in terms of supporting secondary education. They have a highly subsidized university education. But are we well placed in terms of resources to do that? Is that comparison a very fair one, given the kind of circumstances which we are in? Therefore, we need to come up with modalities to make this idea practicable. The critical action that we need to take has got to do with money. In fact, we attend many seminars on education and we have a long list of the things that we need to do. People talk and give recommendations and so on. At one time, there was a participant who summarised all the issues and said that the real problem is money. He said that if we can provide money we can accomplish many of the good things that we want to do. 1056 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES May 2, 2007 So, soon, as a Ministry, we will be calling all the key actors in the educational sector, so that we can think together about how best we can implement this new programme. Among those to be invited will be hon. Members of Parliament, secondary school head teachers, donor organisations and the private sector, so that we can chart a way forward. It is not just going to be the business of the Government. The Government needs to be supported by all those who have a vested interest in this. For this reason, in the next two weeks or so, we will be calling upon stakeholders to come and think with us, on the best way to implement this programme, because we need their support. All of us, including Ministries of Government, have a vested interest in this. What is it that we can get from specific Ministries to support this idea? We do not just need the Ministry of Science and Technology from where we have to come up with resources to invest in technical institutions or the Ministry of Youth Affairs for investment in youth polytechnics, but also other Ministries. There must be resources to support education that we could come up with. We also need religious groups, including the Catholics, Protestants, Muslims and others, who have invested in education. There are also resources from the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) and the private sector. The donor organizations should also insist that it is not enough for them to support us in terms of basic education, because many of them think that all that we need in Africa is primary education. They should understand that even secondary school education, for us, has become basic education, and that there is no way we can think of development--- If they have to support us, therefore, they must allocate more money for secondary education than in primary education. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we also have to call upon our parents to put in something; after all, it is their children. Other than children it implies also other responsibilities. So, cost-sharing from parents will have to be expected if we have to move ahead in terms of that accord. But also in terms of closing the loopholes that will enable us to cut costs---"
}