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"content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, the other issue I want to raise is how education releases the potential of a nation. Read the history of the Scandinavian countries, which in terms of industrial revolution in Europe were late developers, countries like Norway, Sweden and so on. One of the reasons why Sweden developed very fast - this is data that is available in very many nations – is because they heavily invested in human resource development. That is the same kind of thing that our nationalists had in mind when they said that the fight for Independence, once won, then we should begin another one against poverty, ignorance, and disease and focus on health and education and therefore development of human resources. Mr. Temporary Speaker, if we do not invest sufficiently and adequately in our human resources, we can build all kind of Thika Road Super Highways, put up all kinds of forensic laboratories, and buy all kinds of guns to fight in Somalia but we shall not go anywhere in terms of transforming this nation into a middle level income country by 2030 or an industrialized nation beyond. This is because we will not have the human skills to support such a social and economic transformation. Therefore the visit that this Committee had to the coast and the knowledge they are now bringing in assessing the whole architecture of education at the coast, which is a reflection of the rest of Kenya, teaches us one thing; that there is tremendous need to invest in human resources from the grassroots upwards beginning with ECDE. However, we have in the past understood investment in education just like in health, as putting up buildings and equipping them. Buildings without proper people to use them do not make sense. Mr. Temporary Speaker, education can be looked at in terms of the material for education; the syllabus and that is true. But education should also be looked at in terms of leadership in education. One of the biggest crises we have in this country is--- I remember as a Member of Parliament for Kisumu Rural when I always went around talking to teachers. I used to tell them something very simple, that when I was growing up, a teacher was one of the most respected personalities in the village; from the way he dressed, the way he spoke and the way he ate. This was being emulated by everybody and the teacher’s wife as well as the clergy man’s wife - the clergy man’s wife was my mother - were the only women who were called Madam . The rest were not Madams. She was referred to as Madam so-and-so because she was a teacher’s wife. This is because they set examples of leadership and culture in their village. These days when you go to a school and somebody emerges and calls themselves a teacher, you begin wondering whether or not you are dreaming. This is because they are, definitely, not examples of good manners, decency or leadership. Leadership, good manners and culture come from the way you present yourself, talk to people and motive them. I am not saying this in a derogatory manner, but leadership is demanding. It means that you must travel one kilometre further than the others, so that they can follow you. You must set examples. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I think that with the destruction or turning of the teachers training colleges (TTCs) into universities and their reduction--- Even Government training institutes have been reduced and as a result, training in leadership for people in the civil service and teaching profession has suffered tremendously. I think that it is important that at the county level, we begin thinking of centres for educational development. These are the kind of centres to which you will take our teachers every now and again to be retrained; to know what their role is and renew their knowledge. The assumption that once a teacher leaves a TTC, they can teach until they retire is very unfortunate, because it is not realistic. Doctors, for example, are required to pass certain exams every now and again by the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board to prove they are"
}