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"id": 224341,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/224341/?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"
},
"content": "Madam \"Chair\", we are still more concerned with addressing areas that are more disadvantaged than others, such as North Eastern Province, parts of Coast Province, parts of Rift Valley Province and others. We do much more than what we do in areas where the situation is April 25, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 909 normal. In that regard, boarding schools have been introduced in North Eastern Province and other semi-arid areas for girls. There is an effort to ensure that much is done for girls and boys who are attending Standards I to IV. They are put in schools that are much closer to their homes. We are partnering with a number of organisations, including United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Forum for African Women Educationist (FAWE) and African Development Bank (ADB) to support specific programmes that target girls. That includes the provision of sanitary facilities among communities and other support. As a Ministry, we have been providing grants every year to 247 low cost boarding primary schools for general maintenance. Most of those schools are located in arid and semi-arid areas of Kenya. Madam \"Chair, as you know, we have insisted that 5 per cent of the money that is available for bursaries should go to girls' education. But I agree with those who have said that, that is not enough given the social difficulties that confront our girls. I think we should look into how we can increase that percentage. But I also call upon other partners, including Members of Parliament, to set a side resources to ensure that there is disproportionate share going towards the education of women. That is because women encounter many more difficulties. It is much more difficult for parents to support them. We were told by one Member that women should present their cases to bursary committees. Madam \"Chair\", there is affirmative action with regard to admission, especially to universities. We realised that if you make the entry points into the universities the same for boys and girls, given the difficulties that our girls go through, it will be much more difficult for many of them to compete with boys. Therefore, women can enter universities with lower marks. But we would like also to extend that intervention to specific districts. It is not enough to lower entry grades for female students to do general bachelor of art and science degrees. We need to ensure that many more of them are in the professional fields such medicine, engineering and others. It is, therefore, important that we consider the possibilities of lowering specific grades for entry into faculties that are much more competitive, and that have girls. At this point, I would like to say that, fortunately and surprisingly, in areas such as medicine, women are doing very well. But there are much fewer of them in engineering, architecture and other physical sciences. Madam \"Chair\", I would like to also say that we have a specific scholarship programme targeting women who are going to high schools from the arid and semi arid areas. There is US$50,000 available every year to give scholarships to 60 girls who attain 250 marks and above. That programme is supported by UNICEF. That enables girls to enter competitive schools. As a Ministry, we are ensuring that those girls actually enter national schools. That is because, if you score 300 marks and above from those communities, you will compete very well even in a national school. But beyond the quota of getting them in there, there is also that scholarship programme. As a Ministry, we are considering topping it up so that we can support many more girls. Madam \"Chair\", I would like to say that numerous training programmes have been going on. They have been supported by donor organisations and our Ministry. They are mounted to re- design the curriculum and make it less stereotyped and more gender sensitive. That training is also aimed at training teachers and education managers to be much more sensitive in the way they teach and administer programmes in terms of what kind of advice they give to our young girls in primary and secondary schools with regard to careers that they should aim at. So, that support is continuing. A lot of money is being spent in those areas. We realised that, unless we change the attitudes of those who are teaching and administering our schools, there is very little we can expect from our young girls. It will be too ambitious to expect that our young girls will be able to fight those barriers and make it on their own. There is a lot of support for sensitization campaigns to talk about those issues. We want to get together all those who are involved in women's education to 910 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 25, 2007 appreciate the difficulties involved and think of ways and means of increasing enrolment, participation and progression of women in our schools. Madam \"Chair\", I would also like to say that, as a Ministry, we have developed a policy on gender education. We have developed an early childhood education policy which will target more girls. I hope that, at some point, we will be able to support day-care centres for young girls who may want to take advantage of educational opportunities. We also have a re-entry programme. Girls who get pregnant can go back to schools after they have given birth. It has been a difficult policy because some of the people who fight that policy the most are the women principals themselves. But we are talking more and more with them. We are encouraging them to appreciate the difficulties that those girls go through. Sometimes, we only punish girls who get pregnant and not the sugar-daddies and others who get them pregnant. Madam \"Chair\", I would now like to take just five more minutes and speak very quickly. I understand there are other Motions. There are some factors which are external to the educational environment, and which we need to address to deal with issues about women education much more effectively. One has already been alluded to by Members of Parliament. We need to get our women to participate much more in all spheres of the Kenyan society. That may be in business, Civil Service and industries. Unless girls who go to school can see that women are successful outside the traditional areas that are talked about, we are not going to achieve much by way of role models that encourage others to follow their examples. Madam \"Chair\", secondly, we have to address the legal issues. We have to address the legal provisions that are oppressive to women. They could be with regard to property rights, issues of abortion and unwanted pregnancies and matters of polygamy. It is going to be very difficult for us to have a level playing field for our girls, if the law does not recognise equality. You can talk about those issues over and over again, but--- You can go to those communities like Mr. Wamunyinyi has said---"
}