Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 391735,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/391735/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 284,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Omondi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13157,
        "legal_name": "Godliver Nanjira Omondi",
        "slug": "godliver-nanjira-omondi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I stand to support and make some contributions towards this Motion. I request the committee, as it goes round the counties, to consider the issue of Education Assessment and Rehabilitation Centres (EARC). That is where children are assessed and referred. This one caters especially for children with disabilities. The EARCs have been dying. Right now, we have two active EARCs around the country. If they are dying, then how will we promote the assessment of children before they are placed into schools? It is through EARCs that we can assess and determine the capacity of a child to join nursery school. If the child has a disability, the parents are advised at what age the child is supposed to join school and what type of school. I would also like to point out that something is in a mess with regard to ECDs because everybody is coming up with schools along corridors, market places and all these are called nursery schools. These schools are not controlled and I do not know whether they appear in the records of the Ministry of Education even at the district level. This is something we should put into consideration. There are many mushrooming schools in the name of nursery schools. At the end of the day, they cannot really differentiate how many stages a child should undergo during the ECD before joining primary school. A child may even join nursery school for one year and then taken to class one. We have schools where children go through one class in one term. In the following term, they are moved to the next class. I happen to be a board member of one of the District Education Boards (DEB) in my district. We were trying to do a follow up to see how that curriculum is carried out in one of the schools. That became a problem because some people had an interest in the school. We could not visit the school and identify why children were learning in one class per term. I support the Motion because it is important. I request the committee, when it goes round, to also consider the issue of children with disabilities. Retaining these children in schools is a problem. As much as we are trying to push for inclusion in ordinary schools, the infrastructure in most of these schools is not friendly to children with disabilities. Therefore, we cannot achieve the inclusion we want. There is something that interferes with the education of our children. These are the support funds. The CDF, Ministry of Education and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) pay towards this education, but the principal send away children because at the end of the day, there is no clear communication between the parents and the principal of the school. There should be a clear channel of communication so that a parent knows that a certain percentage of the fees have been paid by the Ministry of Education or by the CDF and the balance that is supposed to be cleared by the parent is this much. However, you will find parents paying school fees, the Ministry of Education pays for the same child and the CDF also pays. I would like to say that with regard to special schools in our country, their performance is poor. However, this is not noticed. The District Education Offices (DEO) is not putting this into consideration to find out why these schools are performing poorly. When you do a follow up, you are told that it is obvious; this is a special school. Where is 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."
}