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{
"id": 377705,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/377705/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. A.T. Anyanga",
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"speaker": {
"id": 1321,
"legal_name": "Andrew Toboso Anyanga",
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"content": "Thank you very much, hon. Speaker. I rise to support this Motion by hon. Francis Kigo Njenga with regard to not just empowering our youth really, but to totally put devolution at the core of development in this country; we should ensure that all the key educational institutions, particularly technical institutions, are well funded, equipped and equitably distributed in the country and at the constituency level. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, this Motion addresses a fundamental issue in the education sector, that is the issue of shifting the paradigm from the white collar kind of jobs to self-employment and development of entrepreneurial skills. It is at this stage where we are really talking about decolonization of our education system. Without belabouring the point, many hon. Members have talked about the low transition rates from primary schools to the university. I think where there is a huge wastage of our youth is at the tertiary education level, where many of the current institutions that offer tertiary education have been left in the hands of the private business people, who do not take into consideration market demand. They concentrate on short- term courses that do not really add value to our youth. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, it is interesting to find that, indeed, today you find that a lot of middle level colleges in this country offer diploma courses in a period not exceeding three months. I ask myself what kind of a diploma one can acquire in 100 days; they get out of college and go to the labour market, where they are not able to compete with a diploma holder from the Singapore Institute of Technology, who takes not less than two years to acquire a diploma in a given field or a graduate from China or South Korea. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, if you look at some of the key growth areas of this economy, as we go towards achieving Vision 2030, we know that sectors like construction, automobile industries and mobile telephony will continuously require people with modern skills who can provide the basic and medium level service support. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, if you look at the construction taking place in this country today, whether it is of road or housing, many of the artisans are actually foreigners. We see a lot of them on our roads, or in the real estate. Then the question to ask ourselves is where the Kenyan youth are, who are wielders, masons, carpenters, fitters, electricians, painters, tile layers and so on. Therein lies the tragedy of our nation. We have a huge chunk of the youth who really do not have any technical skills that they can use for self-employment, yet at the same time we expect that through some kind of miracle we shall be able to create jobs for them. That is not going to be possible. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, regarding the establishment of these technical polytechnics at the constituency level, the key issue should be the relevance of the curriculum to be provided in these technical institutions. If I go to most current village polytechnics--- I would not be surprised if I went to Magwego Technical Institute, to which hon. Wangamati went, to find that the T940 Engine which he used is probably"
}