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"id": 225492,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/225492/?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": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the shortage is big. We need, at least 45,000 teachers for primary schools and 10,000 for secondary schools. It is unfortunate because we have up to 60,000 registered unemployed teachers. Many others have graduated through private institutions. So, in terms of actual numbers, we would not have to go outside. The teachers are already there. It is just a question of coming up with the resources. While we are going through this difficult time, we have indicated that we also should try other innovations. Can we do much better with the teachers that we have? Can we get them to do more, in view of the difficulties that some of our students are facing, given the high ratios that have been talked about? Can we do more by way of balancing? Can we get support from everybody, in terms of ensuring that we do not try to push teachers to capital cities and other towns, whereas remote rural schools are disadvantaged? Is it possible to ask for more partnership, again, as we try to resolve the problem? Even if we get more money, I do not think we will avoid a situation where we will have to ask all those who are investing in education to put in a little bit more so as to support the numbers that the Ministry will not be able to support, and in terms of cost-sharing with parents themselves. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I like some of the proposals that have been made. Some hon. Members have suggested, for instance, that we should abolish boarding schools as a way of releasing resources. That is a very good proposal. In many countries of the world, secondary schools are day institutions. It is not quite clear why we must still continue with the tradition of boarding schools, even in areas where children can go to schools very easily. I agree that we should 718 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 18, 2007 have boarding schools in remote parts of this country. But I think it is a high time we took radical measures to do away with national schools, if \"national\" only means a boarding institution that is far away from where the child comes from. Those schools only serve in terms of advantaging children who come from certain backgrounds in terms of competition. As a Ministry, we are considering a possibility of banning or abolishing all boarding schools. We should have day schools in every part of this country. We cannot have schools that are equivalently endowed in terms of resources and teachers. But if boarding schools are an advantage, maybe, it is a high we subjected all of them to the same competition. We should make secondary school education less expensive. We should also create other opportunities for those students who are not able to gain access to secondary school. So, that is a good policy. We should begin to think of ways and means of implementing it without causing the disruption of the system. On training and recruitment, some points have been made by some of our contributors. Having a system of recruitment and training is inevitable in terms of admitting students to teacher training colleges. But, also, in terms of teacher recruitment, there are areas which are favoured. I would like to say that with regard to the recruitment of school leavers to teacher training colleges, the emphasis has been to support areas that have fewer teachers. In other words, the admissions are proportionate to the demand of teachers in various districts. So, districts are allocated training opportunities depending on the shortage of teachers in those districts. That is also the same with regard to the employment of teachers. We should not argue that we should build more teachers training colleges, when we have more than enough institutions. In fact, I keep on wondering for how long we will continue to train teachers in our teacher training colleges when we have 60,000 to 70,000 teachers who are already unemployed. I think the question should be how to use those colleges better. Maybe, we should convert them to diploma awarding institutions and still train more teachers later!"
}