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"id": 225496,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/225496/?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": " It can become an argument because I do not even remember alluding to that fact. I have explained the difficulties that we are facing. I said that there is a shortage of teachers. We appreciate and accept that fact as a Ministry. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I was saying that what we should be thinking about, instead of building more teacher training colleges in view of the shortage of teachers, we should convert those colleges into diploma-granting institutions. They also could be institutions where students could start training as teachers and, eventually, graduate to universities. We have such situations in United States of America (USA) and Canada. Those institutions offer associate degree programmes. They are called community colleges. They offer two-year programmes and from there, you can graduate to a university. That way, you can save two years and still continue. That is one way of reducing the big burden that we have in terms of those students who are graduating from secondary schools. But it is also important, in the long run, to have teachers who have good skills. Diploma teachers are better than P1 teachers. We hope that, in the next 10 years, most of our primary schools will be headed by teachers who have attained the diploma level of education, if not university education. That is the trend elsewhere. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, instead of, therefore, blaming the Government for doing nothing - some hon. Members have said that the Government has been sleeping and do not April 18, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 719 see why we should be talking about teacher recruitment all this time - we need to appreciate what has been accomplished. It is not fair to blame the Government for coming up with the policy of free primary education. I think it is a very good policy and it has made a lot of difference to many Kenyans. What we should be asking is, how it is that we can make it better. However, to say that it is pointless to have started this programme is to fail to appreciate the difference it has made for those Kenyans who could not have had a chance at primary school education. Similarly, I do not think it is fair to, again, complain that we should not open day schools or day streams in boarding schools if we do not have teachers for secondary schools. I think it is a good policy in terms of supporting that transition and ensuring that many more Kenyans have access to secondary school education. Again, the issue is how to deal with the challenges. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also like to say that hon. Members should appreciate the difficulties we inherited from the previous regime. For example, this year, we are coming up with about Kshs5 billion to pay teachers' salaries so that we complete the two remaining phases. If teachers had been paid before 2002, the promise that had been made, this money that we would use to pay teachers now would have been released, maybe, to employ more teachers. That is why I believe that after we are done with this, it is going to be possible for us to have more resources, maybe, Kshs10 billion. It is, therefore, going to be easier to come up with that amount of money because the burden of paying teachers, which should have been accomplished by the previous regime, will have been settled. We will not be talking about increasing salaries and coming up with over Kshs7 billion that has just been allocated for resolving a crisis that had nothing to do with this regime. So, basically, this is purely the issue of the Government. I am trying to say that as we talk about these problems, let us also appreciate the fact that we have made a big leap and have got closer to resolving the issues. However, even in terms of the system of recruiting teachers that is much more equitable and transparent, this is something for which this Government deserves credit. I agree that we should try to employ teachers for our pre-primary schools. However, again, we should take one thing at a time. Have we already resolved the problem of teachers in primary and secondary schools? Finally, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, so that we can have other hon. Members contribute, for teacher recruitment, even though we are not recruiting all teachers, every effort is made to be as transparent and as equitable as possible. I need to underline again that when we recruit, say, 10,000 teachers to replace those we have lost through natural attrition, there is every effort to ensure that those teachers who are recruited are proportionate to the shortages in every district. So, for example, Makueni will always get more teachers than elsewhere. A district like Meru Central where you are saying they have no problem will get no teachers. They have not been getting any teachers. There is every effort at being equitable with regard to recruitment. Mr. Musila said that I am also marginalised, coming from Meru North because we have a shortage of over 1,000 teachers. This is also the case in Makueni and many other semi-arid areas. However, there are reasons for that. Those districts that already have enough teachers also had a head start in terms of having an education advantage. Those areas, in terms of levels of secondary school attendance, for example, you found that the district without any shortage had more of their children enroling in both primary and secondary schools and also teacher-training colleges. Really, the fact that they have no shortage has something to do with a historical advantage and the factor of investment in education in those particular districts. In many ways, you can say that they are being penalised for investing in education because their children do not get recruited as teachers. It is actually not the fault of those children from those communities. We, therefore, need to be careful. This has much to do with how much investment those particular communities have made and the level of actual literacy in those constituencies as opposed to being favoured by the Government. In 720 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 18, 2007 many ways, unfortunately, because of that, now, they are tending to be penalised, especially when it comes to recruitment of teachers. Of course, they are benefitting in other areas because they are the ones who take up other jobs in other sectors outside education. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the problem with Makueni, Meru North and other arid areas has got something to do with that initial investment in terms of whether or not they have a surplus of young people who have gone to training institutions. Whenever you recruit teachers in those areas, immediately, they complete five years, they would want to transfer to other areas that appear more attractive in terms of infrastructural possibilities and other possibilities of support. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, having said that we appreciate the fact that this is a problem, I would like to draw to the attention of this august House the fact that we need to begin thinking of how we can come up with resources. But, more importantly, what do we need to do, as hon. Members, to ensure that we experience serious and dramatic economic growth? This will enable us to employ more teachers because we will have more schools, resources and money. I know that this is happening. We are making progress as it happens. However, if it were much more dramatic, we would be able to do even better. Let us also see what we can do to close all the loopholes through which we are losing money, say, through corruption and other avenues. We can get those resources to be available for recruitment of teachers as well as other demands of this Government. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to stop there and say that we support this Motion, but much will depend on whether or not we will get the support of Treasury and whether or not we will have the resources to recruit more teachers. As of now, we hope that, come the next Budget, we will do better than we have done before in terms of the number of teachers that we have been recruiting."
}