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{
    "id": 471594,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/471594/?format=api",
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    "content": "that it is not okay for our children as young as four years old, to be in a classroom that is worse than their brothers and sisters in Class Seven and Class Eight in other institutions. Madam Temporary Speaker, in certain countries in this world, for example, Norway and the other Scandinavian countries, the most important class is the kindergarten or nursery school. The teachers in those institutions are very well remunerated. What we found out was that a nursery school teacher almost across the whole country is a person who is mistreated by the teachers in primary schools and the parents of the very children that they teach. They are mistreated in terms of working conditions. In fact, we spoke to very many teachers who earn Kshs400 and Kshs500 as their pay. This money is paid when parents contribute. Madam Temporary Speaker, it was such a pity seeing the condition of these teachers, who were struggling with small children, virtually doing so much more than a primary or secondary school teacher does. These are people who are virtually carrying nappies around. At some point, they had to clean the noses of these small babies, as is expected. However, their contribution was totally ignored. Through the effort of the Committee and the many meetings that we had, we emphasized that these people must be properly paid. There is a Bill that the Committee on Education is going to bring to the Floor of this House to deal specifically with the nursery schools teachers. It will deal with how they should be remunerated, the curriculum that they should be using and so on. Madam Temporary Speaker, we considered all these activities a great success because that experience and engagement has made many counties to now budget properly for ECDs. In fact, it is not just the county governments, but even the neighbours of these nursery schools are beginning to respond. I was personally invited to launch one kindergarten in Kwale County. The Member of the County Assembly (MCA) of the area has said specifically that there was no other classroom in that whole ward with better infrastructure than the kindergarten that he had managed to source money from external funding. The money to put up that class did not even come from Kwale County Government. But just following the discussions that we had in Mombasa and Kwale counties, he took it upon himself to build and make sure that those children in his ward were being treated better than they were prior to the exercise that we had carried out. Madam Temporary Speaker, I want to really thank the State University of New York (SUNY) because it is the one that funded that whole exercise. They funded the Naivasha meeting with the CECs, the Mombasa meeting with the MCAs and the joint meeting that we had. I want also to thank the Senators and those who came, particularly the Speaker and his team. We invited them to come and address those people. I also want to thank the many Kenyans who are responding to this call. We have heard of many old boys’ and girls’ associations that are now responding to ensure that the classrooms in the old schools or kindergartens where they went have been constructed through their own efforts. Some wealthy individuals were touched by the fact that we were pointing out that their own children were attending to such ECD schools. If you look at the ECDs in Nairobi, particularly in the affluent areas, you will find that those 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."
}