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{
    "id": 381039,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/381039/?format=api",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "I want to appreciate that the President and his deputy for giving those who were running for various positions an opportunity to be candidates despite the fact that some of us were running against people who were considerably older than ourselves. However, in the remaining appointments in Government, I would encourage that more youth be considered. Mr. Speaker, Sir, more importantly is the situation and position of the National Youth Service (NYS). Those of us who never went through the NYS as a compulsory programme--- Mr. Chair, I think you and other hon. Senators of this House were beneficiaries of this programme. The stories that we hear is that it was an important step in terms of building national values, engraining abilities to be self dependent, giving business skills to young people and so on. As a former lecturer, one of the sad things that I would like to note is that, our universities have now been reduced to a place where we churn out graduates who cannot practise. For example, someone is a graduate of civil or electrical engineering, but they cannot even connect wires because we have put a lot of emphasis on theory rather than practicals. It is important that the NYS is revamped and become an important institution. We should emphasise that before students proceed to university, they must go through the NYS programme. We should even come up with a National Service Day in the country where all of us give voluntary services. The USA has a designated national service day where people give free services to the public. If you are a lawyer, for example, on that day you are allowed to go to court for free and represent a particular client who did not have legal representation. This is one way of giving public service. Mr. Speaker, Sir, those students who have not attained the academic qualifications to proceed to other colleges should be trained. These institutions, as provided for in this Motion, should have outlets where absorption of those who have been trained---People go through the NYS and they are dumped in a particular location. There are no clear mechanisms on how to absorb them. In fact, all the people who go through the NYS should be given the first priority in the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) that was set up. We should identify those who have received necessary skills and give them money to use those skills for purposes of building this nation. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}