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{
    "id": 515294,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/515294/?format=api",
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    "content": "witnessed a classroom being built in my constituency or county by the national Government. Those schools were built by the communities through harambee efforts and self-help projects. Therefore, it has never made any sense to me that those schools continue to be in the hands of the national Government. In which way are they in the national Government? Article 187 of the Constitution allows functions to be devolved from one government to another upon arrangement and agreement by the two governments. Therefore, I am of the view that, incrementally, education should be devolved to the county governments. We must not create county schools by just renaming them. The change in the name itself cannot constitute what we are trying to achieve. It can be achieved by ensuring that the county administration puts as much money into the county schools as they can. We should be past the issue of managing education centrally. In the United States of America (USA), all matters of schools are managed at the state level. There is no centralization of education, except policy. Everything else including the payment of teachers, construction of classrooms, and the financing of the school is done at the state level. It is the same case in India where schools are managed by the state, the only thing that the Central Government provides is advice on policy.The same case applies in Germany where schools are managed by the various states. This is the reason why we embraced devolution in Kenya so that citizens can address the issues close to them because they can see the schools. The fear is that we do not want Kenya to be in a situation where a district school is only attended by persons from within that district. This is one of the problems and that is why tribalism thrives in this country because if you are born in Pumwani and you go to Pumwani Primary School and then Pumwani Secondary School- let me not give the example of Pumwani because it is a mixed community. For example, if you go to Nyeri, Kuria or Murang’a and you were born in a village somewhere in Murang’a, you attend a primary school in Murang’a, then you go to a district school in Murang’a which nobody else from any society in Kenya can attend except those from that district, then, you pass the exams and you go to another institution that is also in the same area, what sort of Kenyan are we breeding through that whole exercise? Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the purpose of education is not just to bury the youth in an information overload. It should be for purposes of transforming societies, so that the social and political impact of education can be felt across the board in all our societies. Therefore, the way to go is to devolve these schools on conditional function devolvement. It should not be all counties at the same time. The way it should be done in my opinion, is that once a county has proved that they have already taken care of the Early Childhood Development Education (ECDEs) as programmed in the Forth Schedule, then they should increasingly be given other responsibilities for other schools. If you look at the states that I have mentioned like India, Israel and other places, the biggest budget in the county administration is the education budget and not the budget for buying vehicles for county executive committees (CECs). Therefore, we should focus and say that once a county is done with the ECDEs, the national Government should devolve all those schools in those counties into county 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."
}