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"id": 224339,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/224339/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Mwiria",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Education",
"speaker": {
"id": 190,
"legal_name": "Valerian Kilemi Mwiria",
"slug": "kilemi-mwiria"
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to support this Motion and to, first, congratulate the Mover for bringing it here. As many hon. Members have said, it is timely, given the urgency with which we need to address issues of women's participation in education in this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me also agree with those who have said that in certain parts of this country, the problem is not just the girls. There are areas in this country where boys have problems, and also need to be given attention. Therefore, when we address the problem, we should not only look at it in terms of gender equity but also in terms of how to address specific problems that affect our boys, which are making it not so easy for them, in certain parts of this country, to progress from one level of education to another. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, hon. Members have explained the circumstances that have led to this scenario. There is no need to repeat them, but they include poverty, cultural attitudes, gender insensitivity, sanitary environment, insecurity and conflicts, walking distances that sometimes are much more of a problem for girls, traditional practices that have been spoken about like the FGM, early marriages, child labour, sexual abuse and polygamy and so on. There are also problems of unfriendly and non-gender sensitive teaching environment, where teachers sometimes have a bias against boys, or where girls are kind of trained to expect to be nurses and teachers. There is also a curriculum where examples of successful people are usually shown to be the men, etcetera . So, all these are factors that contribute to the problem. Even those outside the education system in the wider environment have a big bearing on what takes place in schools. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as a Ministry, we have looked into ways of dealing with this matter. Some hon. Members have alluded to Sessional Paper No.1 of 2005, as well as many other documents that have been generated by the Ministry to address the problem. Firstly, there was the enactment of the Children Act in 2002, which made education compulsory for all boys and girls below the age of 18. The area of particular focus was girls and boys living in difficult circumstances. This was followed by the introduction of free primary education that, again, would ensure that we do not have any barriers to women's participation in education, especially with regard to enroling for the very basic level of education, without which they would not be able to proceed to subsequent levels of education. There has also been a deliberate effort to pay more attention---"
}