HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 365991,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/365991/?format=api",
"text_counter": 286,
"type": "other",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "the fact that in the manifestos of both the leading coalitions, we had proposed to make both primary and secondary education compulsory. It is not something to debate about. The Motion is pertinent because it focuses the attention of the House and indeed, the nation, to what we need to do to make that right to education attainable, more particularly in the ASAL areas. It is now realized, and it is not a matter we could take too long debating, that to leave a girl-child in the ASAL areas to the normal education environment is to waste time. There are so many hindrances around education. Essentially, what we are emphasizing today is that we must create an environment where they can achieve quality education and having boarding facilities is a necessity. We must also be alive to the other things that should go with the boarding facilities. If I would put the mind of the House to reflection, in my constituency, we have a very low staffing level for teachers. For all the public secondary schools, we hardly have more than three teachers including the principal of the school as the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) employees. So, as we talk about boarding facilities, which we should all support for the ASAL areas and of course, we consider in the future other areas, we want to think about the number of teachers we have across the country. The lamentations about the numbers are real and this will hinder the implementation of this project that we are today debating. The teachers across the country are taking their children, particularly at the primary level, to academies. They reckon that they are too few to make any meaningful contribution to success in the learning institutions. As I support the Motion, I urge the Members to emphasis, particularly through the Committee on Education, Research and Technology, that the number of the teaching staff should be increased across the country. We could be talking about boarding facilities, but we need to know that without water, it means nothing. In fact, this is one major reason as to why we are moving the girl-child in the ASAL areas to an enclosed environment, namely, because of the problem of water. In schools in Homa Bay in my constituency, for example, Magare Girls; a beautiful school, you can see the struggle girls in a boarding school go through to get water to bath. In fact, they walk into villages to take some dirty water from some shallow points. It is terrible. So, when we talk about getting boarding facilities in the ASAL areas, water is a critical component. I invite the relevant Government departments and Ministries to an integrated approach in terms of making the facilities workable. You would not have boarding facilities without having teachers being housed within the facilities. I have been reviewing the education sector situation in my constituency of late and it is unfortunate that we have not digitized the system of production of digital or electronic evidence. If you see what we have as housing for the teachers in most of our schools, it is terrible. You question how a teacher residing in such a structure can think overnight, prepare fully, develop notes and transmit knowledge to the students the following day. So, teachers staffing is a critical component. We had spoken about sanitary towels. Let me thank hon. Shebesh because I remember that when we were moving the Motion on the Budget Estimates, she put a lot of weight to this area. I hope the Government will implement it. Having a girl-child in an institution without sanitary towels contributes largely to the low performance by the girl- child across the country. When I was in Standard Eight, a classmate was in that situation."
}