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"speaker_name": "Prof. Maathai",
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"legal_name": "Wangari Muta Maathai",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me an opportunity to contribute to this Bill. First, I would like to congratulate the Minister for bringing this Bill. I remember with nostalgia the establishment of Western Institute of Science and Technology. Many steps have been taken and now it is becoming a university. This is something to congratulate the Minister for. I agree with my colleague, Prof. Oniang'o, that we should recognise the founding fathers of this university. One of them was a colleague of mine at the University of Nairobi, Prof. Kamara. I also want to recognise that the NARC Government has done an excellent job. It has done something wonderful. This is the provision of free primary education in this country. There is nothing we can do for ourselves, as a country, that is greater than investing in the education of our people. I want to say that we must do our best in this regard. I am sure that the Minister is doing what he can to provide free secondary education, the same way we have done with the primary education. This is because without an educated citizenry, it is always very difficult to attain development. This is because you will continue to depend on outsiders to provide the knowledge and skills that are required for development. In this country, if we provide primary education and do not provide free secondary education, it means that we will have many children dropping out of school after getting primary education. Such children will not be able to contribute to the development of our nation. Countries like the Peoples Republic of China, where our Head of State has just been, Korea and India were underdeveloped not long ago, but became giants in the world because they invested in their people. They gave their people knowledge and skills so that they can participate in the development of their country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would wish we, as the November 7, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3441 Government and as leaders, can truly try to find out what we can do because we are losing a lot of our young people to drugs. We have raised this issue in this House many times before. We know what countries such as China, Hong Kong, India, and especially in South East Asia have done. They have really made a deliberate effort as the governments to ensure that drugs are not brought into their countries. If we, as a Government and as leaders, cannot protect our children from drugs and we hope that they can save themselves, I really think that we are failing our young generation. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, to invest in free primary education as much as we are and then in secondary education to the extent that we are and then leave our children at the mercy of drug barons in this country is, to me, one of the biggest failures that we shall leave as a legacy. I know for sure that no country can develop if its youth is involved in drugs. We can see the result of these drugs in the slums; we can see our young people, instead of being engaged in development, they are engaged in killing each other, burning houses, running against each other and shooting each other. Sometimes, you look at the television and you ask yourself: \"Is this a country that is developing or a country that is going backwards?\" Yet these are children who, if we stopped them, they all speak English! So, for sure, they must have gone through school. So, what can we do? This is probably, obviously, not just the concern for the Ministry of Education. This is something that we, as a Government, as the people and as leaders, must address. We will never compete with those countries that are protecting their young people from drugs and investing in education. We will never compete with them! We shall continue to depend on handouts! Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, training, especially by giving skills, is extremely important. As much as we want to give basic education, if we do not give skills, we shall, again, continue getting people graduating from our universities--- I am in a position to hire people who are in the universities. I try to hire people who have degrees in Natural Resource Management, Forestry Management, and any of these issues that I work on in areas of environment. One of the most disappointing aspects of our education system is that our people have a lot of book knowledge, but they have no skills. They definitely have very poor writing and speaking skills. It is difficult for people who cannot write to communicate. And if you are going to be a project manager or a leader in any place, you must provide leadership. People coming out of the universities must surely provide the leadership. If they cannot write or speak, how do we expect them to provide leadership? There is also very little encouragement in our institutions on creativity. There is a sense of education that we have that actually goes to the primary level and you can see it all through to the university, where you have people who do not have the freedom to think or be creative. They are taught to receive information, they take notes and at the examinations, they regurgitate what they got from the professors or teachers and they pass their exams. What we need is an examination system that encourages people to be creative and innovative, so that people do not come out of the university and literally depend on somebody else to help them to do something, because they cannot create. I hope that the Minister for Education will look into this issue. All the things that we admire and want, whether it is electricity, cars or aeroplanes, these were, at the very outset, ideas. These ideas were picked by people who were creative. They innovated and created something that has now become a big thing. We must become creative. What we are seeing in Asia, Europe and in other countries is as a result of creative minds. So, I hope that our universities and, indeed, our education system, will be improved so that it can allow for creativity. Sometimes I ask teachers, especially in the primary and secondary schools, why we need to instill fear in our children. Maybe it is where I come from, but I quite often see children having fear in them. They are afraid of talking or expressing themselves to their teachers. If a person like me goes to a school and wants to speak to the children, they fear and run away from me. Why is it like that? We really need to look into our education system and ensure that our children do not suffer from fear. When children suffer from fear, when they grow up, they will not express that fear in the 3442 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 7, 2006 way that we see in small children. Those are the kind of children who, eventually, when they are frustrated and feel angry, instead of engaging their professors or administrators in dialogue, they find it easier to go to the streets and start stoning passers-by who have done nothing to them. To me, these are symptoms of an education system that has failed to produce students who are confident, creative and willing to engage other human beings in dialogue rather than in confrontation. Because to me, if you go to the streets and start burning cars, hitting people or passers-by who are completely innocent, yet you are a university student, then you are really no longer using your intellect. You are actually expressing a form of fear that I actually see in pupils in primary schools. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in closing, I want to say that it is important that we give quality education. We have been told that quite often we allow so many students in a classroom because we do not have facilities. Sometimes students, especially in the universities, stand up during lectures because there is no room in the classroom or they cannot sit because there are no chairs. What kind of a classroom is that? How can anybody learn if they do not have a conducive environment? It is very important for us to take our university education seriously and give quality education. Nobody wants to hear that they came out of a university which is poorly rated. I was reading in the newspapers how our universities are very poorly rated. Our universities should be tops, especially the older universities, so that the new universities can have something to emulate. One way of improving education is, of course, by giving the universities resources. We should also adequately remunerate the lecturers, so that they do their work properly. We should also avail adequate resources to our professors to undertake research, then we shall not experience the brain-drain that continues to deprive us of good teachers who prefer to go to countries where their skills and knowledge are appreciated. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to support."
}