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{
    "id": 295186,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/295186/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 468,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Trade",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 210,
        "legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
        "slug": "moses-wetangula"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the functions of the Commission as spelt out in Article 11 are commendable but I want also to urge that the TSC pays attention to some of the ills ailing the education sector. We have an auxiliary arm, maybe not of the TSC but a critical component of the teaching fraternity – the trade union group who are also teachers. You will always find that when a teacher has misbehaved, for example, those who molest the young girls in school or those who commit other misdemeanors and felonies, the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) is normally very quick to defend them. You never hear the KNUT talk about the schools whose performance in examinations is dismal because of one of their own. I would want to see a situation where the KNUT constantly assists parents in talking about schools that constantly perform badly despite the fact that head teachers are there. Members of Parliament are damn scared of teachers, because they can show them the door by influencing voters. We would want internal self regulation from the teaching fraternity. If a teacher posts bad results year in, year out, he should not be given an opportunity to be a head teacher for more than two terms, so that somebody else can come in. Parents take their children to school with the hope that they will be assisted to do well, and not ruined in those schools. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the TSC has been given authority to register and remove teachers from the registers but Clause 30 needs to be re-looked at. In fact, let me start with Clause 27, grounds for refusal to register. I am very uncomfortable with this phraseology, where we are saying “in the opinion of the Commission”. There must be criteria. What is going to inform that opinion? The Bill, in Clause 27, says: “27. The Commission shall not register a person as a teacher if such person- (a) does not possess the prescribed qualifications; (b) is not of good moral character; (c) has been convicted of a sexual offence or an offence committed against a child; (d) has been convicted of an offence which, in the opinion of the Commission, renders the person unfit to be a teacher---”"
}