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{
    "id": 453476,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/453476/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 378,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Lay",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1022,
        "legal_name": "Joyce Wanjalah Lay",
        "slug": "joyce-wanjalah-lay"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for recognising gender. My colleagues are complaining about it. I take this opportunity to oppose the Bill. It is very clear that the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has the mandate of handling everything that is contained in this Bill. We have the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) and the Commission for University Education. All these institutions should be able to handle what this Bill envisages to do. If it is a matter of standards, they should be able to handle the same. I can see that the Government is engaged in double speak. We are saying that we want to cut the wage bill in the country but at the same time, we are trying to create some authority. From the Bill, it is clear that they are going to appoint a director-general. This person is not going to sit there for free. He has to be paid a salary. I was ready to accept a 10 per cent cut on my salary but if there is not going to be a clear way of showing that this money is going to trickle down to the common mwananchi, I will decline. As of now, I make sure that whatever I earn reaches my people on the ground. So, as we collect all the money that we are going to realise from cutting the wage bill, we should have a clear way of showing how this money will trickle down to the common person. First of all, we need to find solutions to our ailing education sector. This year alone, we have 200,000 pupils who could not make it to secondary school because they failed in an examination. So, if we have 200,000 pupils this year, and in each of the next two years we have 200,000 pupils not making it to secondary school; then there is a problem. We need to fix this problem before talking about putting in place a qualification framework. Who are going to qualify if we do not give children a chance to make sure that they reach Form Four? Talk about degrees and diplomas would be useless at this point. None of the 200,000 who have missed out on secondary education will become leaders in the future because according to our Constitution, in order for one to become a leader one needs to obtain a Form Four certificate. We are sending this 13 year old child to a polytechnic, which means that this child will not be a leader in future. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}