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{
    "id": 377692,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/377692/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 121,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "I want us to critically analyze our education sector. All the years, there has been a clamor to have degrees and university colleges all over at the expense of some of the technical institutions. One of the positive legacies of colonialisms is the establishment of village polytechnics in all our villages. Even where I come from, which is the most disadvantaged region, there was a polytechnic in the 1960s but, in between, it died. It is now in the last five years that we are trying to revive it. That is because we have looked at education purely from pecuniary gains like employment opportunities. We need to look at other benefits. As somebody has rightly pointed out, we need to look at the number of students who graduate from Standard Eight to secondary schools and then from secondary schools to universities. It, may be, less than 20 per cent. What do we do with the 80 per cent who are not lucky enough either because of school fees, do not meet the threshold or do not qualify to join secondary schools? That is the most dangerous group and for us to deal effectively with the issue of insecurity, we must find relevance for the Standard Eight school dropouts or those who do not get an opportunity to go to secondary schools. We must also create relevance for those who do not make it to the university after Form Four, which is a big chunk of our youth today. Today in this country, we talk about unemployment and under-employment. Under-employment is so because there is scarcity of jobs. But when you look at the issue of unemployment, the governments that we have had over the years have contributed inadvertently to this scenario because technical and tertiary institutions have been completely neglected. I want to plead with the Mover of this Motion. This is a good thing but let him bring amendments to the Constituencies Development Act (CDF) Act and other statutes so that we domesticate this. Let us not urge the Government. Let us generate as many Bills as possible and wait for the President to either assent to them or"
}