HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 225476,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/225476/?format=api",
"text_counter": 199,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Prof. Anyang'-Nyong'o",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 193,
"legal_name": "Peter Anyang' Nyong'o",
"slug": "peter-nyongo"
},
"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I would like to support this Motion very strongly. The free primary education can only make sense if there are enough teachers to teach students and pupils in schools, and if the teacher-pupil ratio is effective. Apart from the fact that there is a tremendous shortage of teachers in our schools, the teacher-pupil ratio is alarming. There is a primary school in my constituency with about 600 pupils and only about 12 or 13 teachers, who work very hard. I am quite sure that if there were more teachers, that primary school would perform much better in national examinations. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to propose to the Ministry a very radical approach to teachers training. First, it was a big mistake to turn some of our best teachers training institutions into universities, like the Siriba Teachers Training College in my constituency, which became part of Maseno University. Whereas we welcome Maseno University, it should not have been established at the expense of training teachers. This is because those students at Maseno University must come from primary and secondary schools. If we do not have primary schools to produce secondary schools, the university will not have students to admit. So, paying attention to keeping the teachers training colleges that we had, and building more, should be part and parcel of increasing the number of teachers that we have in our country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when my late father was a student at Maseno School in the 1930s, apart from being taught as high school students, they were also trained as teachers. They became some of the best teachers in this Republic, for example, Mr. J.D. Otiende and so many others. They never really went to a teachers training college, but the teachers training college they attended was high school. Sometime ago, we did away with higher school certificates. My proposal would be that the facilities that we used for higher school certificates in a place like Alliance High School, for example, should be used for training a certain category of teachers to teach in primary schools. That option should be there, because it worked very well in colonial times. I do not, therefore, understand why it cannot work now. There also used to be a category of teachers called untrained teachers or UTs. I was taught by UTs in primary school. Some of them were very good teachers, because they were people who were preparing themselves to go to teachers training colleges. Therefore, they had to demonstrate to the headmasters that they could be recommended for teachers training. The subjects they took, they strove to excel in teaching, so that they could succeed to go to teachers training colleges. Therefore, the category of untrained teachers has to be revived as an emergency measure, to deal with this shortage of teachers in our schools. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the supervision of teachers in primary schools is also 712 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 18, 2007 lacking. One of the reasons why the teachers we have, albeit they are few, are also performing poorly, is because the supervision is no longer there. In my constituency, I discovered that there are certain schools which did not even have access roads to them. So, the teachers who travel on bicycles to supervise fail to access these schools, because there are no roads. Therefore, apart from the fact that we have a scarcity of teachers, the infrastructure for making it possible for the few teachers to do an effective job, is also lacking in many places. So, we should not just be proud that we have free primary school education; if there is no effective infrastructure and supervision, we shall end up having very low quality pupils and outcome of students in our schools. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is also another thing that the Ministry should pay attention to, that is, the retirement age of teachers. If we have a very high attrition of teachers - let us be frank; a lot of teachers are passing away because of the HIV/AIDS pandemic - why do we have to retire them at the age of 55 years? I am over 60 years old, but I can still go to a primary school and teach very effectively. Why should I be prevented from teaching just because of age? I think what is important is to realise that once somebody becomes a teacher, he will always be a teacher. Therefore, there is no reason whatsoever on the face of this earth, to use a mandatory age of 55 years to retire people in a profession where we need more people. I can understand the retirement in the Civil Service, because we are scaling down the number of people who work in it. We want a lean and keen Civil Service, as we used to say when I was in Government. But the point is that in the teaching profession, we need more people, and because we have them and they are trained and they are doing well, please, keep them until they are 70 years old, if they are still physically strong. Our Vice-President and Minister for Home Affairs is over 70 years old and, yet he is doing pretty well. I am quite sure that if he retired and went to Funyula Constituency, he would be a very effective primary school teacher. So, I have a feeling that we should enhance the age of retirement in the teaching profession or make it open-ended. For example, recently Prof. Ogot laid a foundation stone in my constituency, for the building of a primary school. He is about 74 years old, yet, when we went to the headmaster's office, he could remember all the books in that office. He also talked to the headmaster and gave him instructions and so on. If he offers to be the headmaster of a high school, why should we prevent him from doing so just because of his age and, yet, we have a shortage of teachers? So, there should be a complete revolution in the Ministry of Education, with regard to the recruitment of teachers and having more of them teaching in schools. If we jut focus ourselves on teachers training colleges alone, that is not even enough. I have just looked at the list of the shortage of teachers in the whole Republic and it is enormous. In my own constituency we have a shortage of about 600 teachers, because Kisumu West District has one constituency. Now, if in that one constituency we have a shortage of 600 teachers, where will they come from? How long will it take to train them? Please, Mr. Minister, let the teachers teach until they are 70 years old. Also, get some untrained teachers to teach and diversify the source of training to high schools, like Alliance High School which has facilities. Finally, when students in Universities are on holiday, they should be recruited as teacher. I was taught by Mr. James Obaso who is a very outstanding teacher in my constituency. He was a student at Maseno School. After completing his Form Four he had about six months to use before joining Makerere University. He, therefore, came to Oriro Primary School and taught me. He was one of the best arithmetic and geometry teachers I ever saw, and yet, he was just somebody from high school. A lot of people, including the late Dr. Wameyo, taught me in Ndiu Intermediate School when I was in Standard 2. He used to come to Standard 2 and teach us Luhya folk songs, and we enjoyed them! Asante mak luma luma tuma khuenga !"
}