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"id": 225472,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Musila",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I want to support very strongly this Motion and thank hon. Ojode for bringing it, particularly at this time when we are preparing the Budget. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have in the past congratulated the Government for the introduction of free primary education. However, I have on the Floor of this House lamented that this free primary education, particularly in some areas, is meaningless. This is because the quality is so low that one would wonder whether it is worth anything. While contributing to the Presidential Address, I said that in Mwingi District a lot of classes in lower primary have more than 100 students per teacher. It is not uncommon to find a school with eight classes to have only five teachers. This is the reality. It is so demonstrated by this document which I believe is sourced from the Ministry of Education. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have so many unemployed teachers. In Mwingi District, for example, teachers who finished their training in 2002 are still at home and unemployed. Yet, we have a shortage of 660 teachers. I am sure it is the same thing all over the Republic. I want to make a special appeal to the Ministry of Education that as we approach the new recruitment of teachers, it should address the issue of those areas which have a higher shortage of teachers first. In the past, what has been happening is that whenever recruitment occurs, even those districts with fewer shortages get the same number of teachers employed with those who have a large number of shortages. If this goes on, when will we eliminate these shortages? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to decry the apparent marginalisation of some districts. The President is on record as saying that his Government is committed to equitable distribution of national resources. If that is the case, why is it that Kitui District has a shortage of 710 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 18, 2007 1,281; Machakos District, 1,455, teachers; Makueni District, 1,313; and Mwingi District, 660 teachers leading to a combined shortage of 3,709 teachers? Imagine that and yet this is a very small region! I was very surprised that hon. Munyao whose district, Makueni, has a shortage of 1,313 teachers can stand up here and tell us that the Government is doing its best. Certainly, that is not its best. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have primary school teachers being exported outside the country to Rwanda, Seychelles and Sudan, while our own children have no teachers. I think this is one of the biggest scandals we have in this country. Now, the Ministry of Education is currently registering potential students for training for P1 courses. I am sorry to say that even the Assistant Minister for Education, Dr. Mwiria's district of Meru North has a shortage of 1,252 teachers as opposed to other neighbouring districts of Meru Central which has 53 teachers; Meru South, 154 teachers, and Meru North, 1,252 teachers. Why? This is marginalisation. So, when he allocates positions for training, we want to see these districts with the highest numbers of shortage of teachers being given the lions share of teachers to train."
}