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"id": 262938,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. James Maina Kamau",
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"legal_name": "James Maina Kamau",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to move the following Motion. THAT, aware that the Joint Admission Board (JAB) admitted 32,611 students to public universities in the years 2009 and 2010 double intake; concerned that less than a third of the 81,000 students who had qualified to join public universities were admitted; further concerned that parallel degrees programme admissions continue to expand further stretching resources for regular programmes; aware that the economic growth of our nation is tied to the educational development of her people; acknowledging that the first group of students under the free education programme will be graduating by 2015 and more than 150,000 students are likely to qualify for university intake; this House urges the Government to ensure that at least seventy five percent (75%) of all qualifying students are admitted to the regular programmes in our public universities from the year 2011. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the purpose of bringing this Motion is because of what I have said. By 2015 we are going to have very many students going to the universities and nothing is being done to the existing universities. I do not want to over-emphasize the importance of education in this country. We know that for the long term economic growth of a growing nation, skilled manpower is necessary. Where do you get this skilled manpower? We can only get that from a good university or college. So many of our students are qualifying and yet they are not able to go to university. With good education, you are assured of good living because you are able to get a good job and be able to take care of your family. It also reduces poverty in a family. So, education is very vital in any nation. With the introduction of free primary education in 2003, we expected most students to join primary schools but at the same time we expected more to join secondary schools. It is also good to know that when more join secondary schools, more are expected to join universities. As you can see, there is nothing more important in this country than what we have. So, what is going to happen? Unless the Government does something in terms of expanding the existing facilities, there will come a time when all those students will have nowhere to go. You will notice that in 2009 about 81,000 students qualified to go to the university but only 31,000 managed to go to public universities. If you ask; what happened to all those who did not manage to get a chance in public universities? Most of them are doing nothing and are jobless. They are tarmacking in the streets and have nowhere to go. I believe that it is the work of the Government to make sure that all these people are given a chance to go to the university. You also notice that the proper qualification is a mean grade of C+. You will notice that this time they are not even giving them a chance. A child who has attained a mean grade of C+ in our education system is actually eligible for admission but unfortunately they are not admitted. They are only admitting those with A, A-, B+ and so on. That means that all those who are qualified do not get a chance to go to the university. So, what is the Government doing about that? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, one might ask himself that once we have more universities what are we going to do with the increased manpower? Countries like the United States of America (USA) and India actually export human resource. In our neighbourhood, we have countries like South Sudan and Rwanda. South Sudan is a new nation and infrastructure is not in place. So, we can export our human resource to places like South Sudan and Rwanda. I know that teachers are actually in great demand in countries like Rwanda. So, we are not going to have a problem when we educate our children en mass . I believe that there is nothing you can give a child other than proper education. By giving proper education, it requires that a child attains a degree in a university. But in this country, we are just sitting there and doing nothing then we will find that when this influx comes, all these children will not be admitted to the universities. They will just be idle and become useless people. That is the kind of thing that I intend to highlight by bringing this Motion so that something is done in good time. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we expect about 150,000 students to qualify for university admission in 2015. If we go by the current standards, you will find that only about 40,000 students will be admitted. We require the Government to raise this to something like 75 per cent so that about 112,000 students get a chance. This is a good number and most students are not going to get lost. We need to start planning and the time to start planning is now. If we do not do that, it would be irresponsible of the Government not to make sure that all the students that have qualified get good education. We need skilled manpower and we only have six public universities. If nothing is done to expand what we have, it means that all those students will not be admitted anywhere. So, what can we do? We can take, for instance, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and expand it. Most universities in this country have a lot of land. So, there is room for expansion. So, that cannot be an excuse from the Government saying that we do not have land to expand our universities. All those public universities can be expanded and all the qualified students are admitted. I would like this Motion to be seconded by the hon. Member for Limuru who has agreed to support me so that we move forward."
}