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"content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, it has been said internationally that Kenyan workers are some of the best. Wherever they are employed, they excel and perform. That is because of the kind of education that they get. That being the case, therefore, we must lay emphasis on education and that takes us to the foundation. Just like in every building, the strength of a building depends on the strength of the foundation. If we want to sustain the human resource that we are known for, as Kenyans, then we must lay adequate emphasis on the foundation of education, which is, pre-primary education and ECD. In that case, it means that we not only need free pre-primary education, but also we must support it with resources and ensure that it is universal. It has to be universal because those who come from poor families, like I do, did not have the opportunity to have good pre-primary education. We found it very difficult in primary school when we met with colleagues who had four years in pre-primary education. They were speaking fluent English, Kiswahili and you were joining them at the same level and sitting for the same national examinations. It is very difficult to compete with this kind of people. How do you expect somebody who comes from the part of the country where the letters “L” and “R” are interchanged, and at some level, you expect them to speak the same English with a child who was exposed to English at a very early age? That is the formative stage where people learn and children know how to pronounce words. So, if you allow a child, for example, to keep calling “L” as “R” and vice-versa or you come from another part of this country where people cannot pronounce the words “SH” and insist on “S” for everything and expect that at some level you are going to expose a child, who was taught in Luo for over five years, to insha and English Language--- We must insist that pre-primary education must be universal. They must have a curriculum that is universal; we must have adequately trained teachers at all levels and the necessary infrastructure, including good classrooms and facilities, because this is the formative year. How this person is going to access, perform and pass their exams actually has its roots in the kind of pre-primary education that they got, but that is not the only thing that needs to be taken care of. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I went to school during the time that we had the privilege of drinking Nyayo milk. Apart from anything else that I was going to school for, since I came from a very poor family, what took me to school was the milk. So, when you talk of children who come from poor families and slum areas and have nothing to eat, and there is a motivation that if they go to school, they will find a plate of a hot meal, they will like schooling. I liked school because everytime I went to there, I was given a glass of milk. For many days, that is what I survived on. I would go back home to an empty kitchen, but I would always be the first in class because I knew that there was milk at the end of the day. So, sometimes we want to take such things like the school feeding programme lightly, but it might be light for those who are able to afford three meals a day or five course meals everytime. But for a child who comes from the slums of Korogocho, Kibera or the rural areas where people are very poor, when you feed them in school, you motivate them. For them, that is the mental picture that they create about schooling. You 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"
}