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"id": 295181,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Koech",
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"legal_name": "David Kibet Koech",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. Allow me first of all, to sincerely thank the Minister for having fast tracked the introduction of this Bill to this House. There has been a lot of agitation out there because the management and the running of the TSC, at the moment is in jeopardy unless we pass this Bill. Allow me to also thank the Minister for the many Bills that are in the pipeline. I want to say and confirm that this is one very active Minister that we have worked with as a Committee. The TSC is a very important institution for the Republic of Kenya. At Independence, we did agree that, as a country, we would fight three things namely ignorance, poverty and diseases. I want to make it very clear here that if we, as a country, fight illiteracy with focus and purpose, we shall indirectly take care of poverty and diseases because a well-educated person will know how to take care of himself. He will also know when to go for medical checkups and when not to. Through education, we have seen many Kenyans come out of poverty. So, I want to indicate that for this country, Kenya, education requires serious attention so that we overcome all the other things that we agreed to fight as a nation. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the TSC is mandated to manage teachers. Teachers are very important in the Republic of Kenya and all over the world. For us to be what we are today, and for any person to be what he or she is today or for any child to be what he or she aspires to be, the teacher is a very important person. Therefore, this Bill that looks at the management and recruitment of teachers is very important. The TSC roles include registration of teachers and issuance of certificates so that we can clearly know who is a teacher in this country and who is not. The Commission is also empowered to recruit teachers and ensure standards are met. Now that the TSC is an independent entity, it should, guided by this Bill once passed, address squarely the issue of shortage of teachers to ensure quality education. What we have in this country today is for a fact that those who are able have taken their children to private schools where the private owners have made sure that they have enough teachers to teach, and the classes that they teach are reduced to manageable sizes. These children, therefore, have advantage over a child of a Kenyan who is struggling and his child goes to a public school where they have one teacher teaching or trying to help up to 100 students in a class. So, I want the TSC, once established, to seriously address this matter so that a child of a poor man can one day dine with a child of a king and probably become the king himself to lead this country in future. We expect TSC to ensure the improvement of standards in our country. We also expect them to discipline those teachers who do not perform. It has been taking too long for the TSC to act on any issue because they have been relying on the Ministry of Education officers under the Quality Assessment Department where sometimes they take too long to give a report to the TSC. We always say that justice delayed is justice denied. It is, therefore, important that within the TSC they should put up clear regulations that will address these matters within a very short time. This is because we are talking about people who are dealing with the children of the Republic of Kenya. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, looking at the composition of the Commission, I concur with the need to have only nine commissioners. A lean commission is more effective when they put more to the devolution in the counties. Currently, TSC has over 20 commissioners and this may have affected the performance of the TSC. It is important to note here that it is proposed that they shall be full time commissioners. I want to laud that. Issues have been raised out there by some major stakeholders. Within the provision of the composition of the commissioners it has been made clear here that to be a chairman of this Commission, one must first of all have had some training in the field of education. I want to support this. Since we also need people with qualifications in other fields, I want to concur that for the other commissioners we actually need persons who have a degree. The process of appointing commissioner is important and critical for this country. We need clear participation and clear process of interviewing the selection panel. What has been indicated here is that the panel shall be constituted by the President in concurrence with the Prime Minister. We are seized of this matter and we are discussing it. We have opened it out to major stakeholders to also give us their input. We believe that their input together with the input of hon. Members of this House we will be in a position to perfect this document. There is need to ensure that the panel which is going to select and advertise for positions goes through the vetting process just like we have been doing in the case of other Bills. I am also happy with the fact that from the advertisement the selection panel shall pick three persons for the position of the Chairman and 13 persons for the position of members to be forwarded to the President who shall be expected to pick one person for the position of Chairman and eight persons for the position of members. Those names will then be forwarded to this honourable House for consideration and either support and forward, or reject and return. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the need that three persons be picked for the position of Chairman will give the appointing authority a leeway that if the proposed candidate is rejected then the appointing authority is able to bring any of the remaining two so that we do not take too long in going through the entire process. I want to commend that proposal. The powers of the Commission include the advertisement and recruitment of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The CEO is a very important officer in the Commission. I want to laud the proposal because in this Bill it is very clear that the CEO shall work for five years renewable once. I want to make it clear that it has not been practically possible to deal with this matter because in the current Teachers Service Commission Act it is not known who should appoint and for how long the CEO should serve. It is important for this House to consider that this being a very important position there is need for the CEO to be vetted alongside the Commissioners. The CEO should also go through this House for approval. The question that every other person has been raising is who should teach in this country. If you asked anybody who should be allowed to treat people, Prof. Anyang’- Nyong’o will tell you that it has to be a qualified doctor. Who should go to court? It has to be a qualified lawyer. We must come out clear and clean in this country about who should be teaching our children. For those of us who have undergone that training, there is more to teaching that one requires to understand and know. Therefore, there is need to ensure that teachers in Kenya undergo teaching professional courses before they are engaged to teach. This is important because Kenya is proud in the whole world and specifically in Africa to have more than enough trained teachers right from the ECD to the highest level of education. We, therefore, need to be clear on that matter. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Clause 35 of the Bill indicates that the TSC shall enter into agreements with any institution, body, department or agency of the Government pursuant to its functions and powers bestowed under this Clause. I really want to thank those people who have invested in education because they have helped the Government in the public/private partnership arrangement. These people should be able to register with the TSC in order to ensure that the teachers they engage are persons who have been licensed by the TSC. This should be made mandatory. I am happy about the need for teachers to go for further studies. What is happening in the country today is that once a teacher graduates, he or she is left alone to decide when to go for very important courses. The Kenya Education Management Institute has very important courses which can help teachers progress. However, this has been left at the mercy of teachers who have to look for money to go for those courses. We should ensure that these courses are mandatory and that the Government provides money to enable our teachers undergo these important courses. We must ensure performance. Our new Constitution contemplates that every person engaged in the Republic must perform. Today we do not have a clear mechanism to ensure that those teachers who perform are rewarded. There is no clear programme of recognizing them. They, therefore, end up getting discouraged. It is important to recognize people who have performed. As I wind up, on the financial provision, children learn through what they are taught in class and through what we call the hidden curriculum where they see their mentors. They learn from the way their mentors operate and behave. Their first mentor is the teacher. The way the teachers behave and carry out their activities, many of our children learn and pick a lot from them. We must endeavor to ensure that this issue of delaying the payment of salaries for teachers stops. The TSC is entitled to prepare its budget estimates and present them. Once presented and adapted we should be able to see the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) releasing the salaries on time to avoid seeing people demonstrating and to also ensure that these people are entitled to an increment. It should be an entitlement that should not require even the unions to go demanding for it. It should be something that should be updated even before."
}