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{
    "id": 400894,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/400894/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 194,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Kanainza",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13113,
        "legal_name": "Daisy Nyongesa Kanainza",
        "slug": "daisy-nyongesa-kanainza"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker, for giving me an opportunity to second the Motion before the House by the Committee on Education, Information and Technology. We covered the education bit and the ICT. As we went round the counties, we saw the level of ICT connectivity and the use of the Integrated Finance Management Information System (IFMIS) and the fibre optic installations. I will start with what we encountered when we visited the counties. I will start with the ECD. We noticed that there was a big gap in the ECD structures. In some places, ECDs are referred to as nursery schools. They are managed by the society, churches and even individuals. We realised, in the institutions that we visited that the school feeding programme is a big challenge. In some places, children stay in school up to very late hours without taking anything. That is why we recommended that the school feeding programme be a responsibility of the community and not even the Government. The other thing is about recruitment and employment of teachers. In Kisii County, teachers are employed by the county government. This is the same thing we saw in Vihiga and Kakamega counties. They have structures to have teachers in place who can teach these children. However, there was a challenge with the TSC. Now that this is a devolved function, they want to take up the responsibility. The county governments were not very comfortable with that. The other one was about the curriculum. There is no standardised curriculum for teachers to use. With regard to infrastructure, we did not see any good playgrounds. We know that these children are not just supposed to stay in class. They also need to play because that is part of growth. In Kisii County, there is a school we visited where ECD stage one, nursery and the pre-unit children were sharing the same classroom. They were kept in different corners. I do not know how the ECD and nursery children would concentrate when two teachers are teaching at different corners. The teaching material was not also sufficient to allow learning to take place. With regard to polytechnics, it was very important for county governments to rebrand polytechnics so as to improve attitudes of learners. Learners tend to think that going to village polytechnics can only give them poor quality of education. In Kisumu County, it was felt that we could have marine courses since we have the lake there. In Kakamega County, we had two well equipped polytechnics. We visited Sigalagala and Shiamberere polytechnics. The problem we have with these institutions is that the names of the institutions hamper learners from enrolling. The other challenge that the institutions are facing is the training grants. There is a grant that comes from the national government. I believe the minimum is Kshs15,000. To some extent, it does not 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"
}