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"id": 297912,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Kosgey",
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"legal_name": "Henry Kiprono Kosgey",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this very important Bill dealing with employment of teachers. I want to adress myself to Section 11 which deals with the functions of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC). As specified in Article 237 of the Constitution, the TSC deals with employment of teachers. At the moment, the number of teachers in Kenya is approximately 240,000. The distribution of this number is really what I want to address myself to. In primary schools, the ratio is one teacher to probably 40 pupils. At the moment, the distribution of teachers is pathetic. It is only high cost schools and academies which have enough teachers. The rest of the primary schools in rural Kenya do not have enough teachers and yet this is where the majority of pupils in Kenya are. In order to ensure that there is equity and justice in future, we need to ensure that every child in Kenya gets accessible, affordable and quality education. This can only happen if there are enough teachers. At the moment, we hear that the shortage of teachers in Kenya is maybe 60,000 or 70,000 and yet the Government and the TSC do nothing to redress this problem. We are told that they will employ 10,000 teachers. Employing 10,000 teachers is a drop in the ocean. What is happening is that the rights of the child which we have spelled out again in our Constitution such as the right to quality and equitable education is not being adhered to. The Minister is here, and that is why I would like to talk about this point only to ensure that in future we provide adequate teachers for all our primary schools and secondary schools. If you look at secondary schools, you will realise that there are schools that go without a Maths or English teacher for a whole year and you expect students in those schools to sit the same examinations as those whose schools have more than one English or Maths teacher. This is inequity. In future, you will hear that certain areas have been marginalized. They are marginalized from the day they are not given adequate teachers or they are not given teachers at all and they will continue lagging behind. This is one of the major causes of inequity in Kenya; the inability to provide all our children with the right number of teachers. Another aspect in Article 11 has to do with the management of teachers’ payroll. We have had very many times teachers wanting to go on strike and we wonder why teachers have to threaten to go on strike in order to get their rights all the time. Even an increase which has been agreed on, for it to be implemented, it takes a threat of a strike or sometimes a strike. We want to hear in future that the education of our children is not disrupted in any way. This is because we do not have to go on strike in order to get our salaries. Other professionals also get their salaries without threatening to go on strike. Why does this happen to the teachers all the time? They have to threaten to go on strike so that the Minister for Education can go to the Ministry of Finance and the next thing you will hear is that money has been released. This includes free primary education money. I know this aspect is not covered in this Bill but it is the same because it affects education of our children. Once in a while, teachers have threatened to go on strike so that they can get their pay and money for free primary education. Once they are not working harmoniously, then this disrupts the education of our children. Mr. Speaker, Sir, this Commission is also supposed to be composed of eight commissioners including one chairman. We do hope that these eight commissioners will be distributed equitably countrywide so that there is no area which will not be represented by a commissioner. Recently, we saw the same TSC employ County Education Directors. I looked at the list and it was very surprising. There was nobody from Rift Valley; a whole area where there are over 20 counties. This is nearly half of the country and yet we do not have even one County Education Director from there. You really wonder what happened to the equity that is inbuilt in our Constitution. From now on, it is not our job to fight for these jobs. The Constitution states that if you will employ 47 County Education Directors, honestly there should be, at least, two from Rift Valley. With the new Bill being passed, we hope that the employment of these commissioners will be done in an equitable manner. There should be one, at least, from the Coast, one from Western, one from Central and so forth. We hope that all of them will not come from Makueni. Mr. Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to support."
}