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"speaker_name": "Mr. Ojode",
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"legal_name": "Joshua Orwa Ojode",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me start by thanking those who have supported this very important Motion. I have taken down Mr. Sambu's observations. He was of the idea that boarding schools be scrapped. I welcome that move. However, if we did away with boarding schools, the bottom line is that we will still require more teachers. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Mr. Musila spoke about the numbers of teachers to be considered for recruitment in various districts with the highest under-staffing. I welcome that move. As we have seen, Homa Bay and Makueni districts have very high levels of under-staffing. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Prof. Anyang'-Nyong'o talked about hiring retired teachers. For me, that is a big \"No.\" We have very able young people who could as well be trained and hired. We also have those young men and women who have been trained and yet, they are still jobless. These are the people I would appeal to the Minister to give first priority when recruiting teachers. As the Minister said, there are a number of trained teachers who have not been employed. In fact, we should not employ or hire anybody who has retired. Dr. Kibunguchy said that there is need for equity. In fact, that is what the Minister should do. Mr. Poghisio also talked about marginalised areas. It is true that when you look at the list I gave to the House, the situation in marginalised areas is wanting. I do not know what method the Government will use to improve this situation. When talking about recruiting 10,000 teachers, the Minister should not confuse what has been going on for recruitment. What has been happening is replacement of teachers who leave the profession through natural attrition. In fact, the Government has never done any recruitment of teachers since 1995. The ceiling was given by the former Minister for Finance, Mr. Nyachae. There was nothing legal about it. The Minister should note that. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is time for the Minister to convince the Treasury that the Ministry needs Kshs10.7 billion in order to recruit 56,000 teachers. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are a number of projects in which the Government has put a lot of money. As I speak, there is a case of the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) where a variation has been done without re-tendering. The procurement procedures say that if one wants to vary any contract, it has to be re-tendered. The KAA have not re-tendered any contract, but are varying it to the tune of Kshs20 billion to Kshs30 billion. What Mr. Ojode is asking for is only Kshs10.7 billion per annum in order to recruit 56,000 teachers. This is the case I would like the Minister to address. There are those fast-growing economies of East and Central Asia, such as Korea and others like New Zealand, Brazil, Malaysia, India and Indonesia. Those countries are spending more resources on education. They are spending between 39 per cent to 50 per cent of their countries' budgets on education. So, why can this Government not follow suit? Why not forget about the phantom projects and put more resources in the education sector? 722 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 18, 2007 Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, even creating more districts is not a priority. In fact, the priority now is to recruit more teachers. I believe that the majority of my colleagues are spending more money on education. In my constituency alone, in 1994, I only had six secondary schools. As we speak right now, I have increased them to 24 and these schools need teachers. So, I am appealing to the Government that their priorities should not be targeting phantom projects or buying and purchasing of second-hand helicopters. I was perplexed to hear that from a Government Minister who stood somewhere and said that they are in the process of purchasing second-hand jet fighters and helicopters. I want to caution this Government. If they are looking for resources for campaigns, they should not try to purchase any second-hand equipment. We will take them to court once we form the next Government because they are trying to loot Government resources. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Ministry should direct financial and material support to more day-secondary schools in order to enhance their effective utilisation and overall performance and quality. The reason why we need to put more resources in day-secondary school is because of the expenses. In fact, I should bring another Motion here to either abolish or transform all boarding schools into day-schools. I am saying that because it is too expensive for ordinary Kenyans to afford boarding schools. The other area where I wanted the Minister to come out clear, is the issue of that money which is being disbursed for FPE in each and every primary school. I think there is need for the Minister either to constitute a task force to check whether that money which is being given out, based on enrolment, is being utilised for the intended purpose. A number of teachers are misusing this money. It would have been important if that money could be channelled to the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) as a separate item. If that is done, it will be easy for us to know which school needs what. But there are some schools which are just misusing that money. They are not supplementing CDF by contributing some of the money that has been allocated to them. It is important for them to change the mode of disbursing that money. That equally applies to the Bursary Fund. The bursaries target the orphans but the Ministry does not give us enough money and it takes a long time to disburse the bursary funds. With those few remarks, I beg to move."
}