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{
    "id": 516936,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/516936/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 442,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Bishop) R. Mutua",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13137,
        "legal_name": "Robert Mutemi Mutua",
        "slug": "robert-mutemi-mutua"
    },
    "content": "I have a couple of reasons for supporting. Ranking assists in resource allocation because schools that do not perform well highlight the fact that there inequalities and inefficiencies both in governance and in the way they implement the curriculum. We need to rank schools so that those which perform poorly can attract the attention of school committees, the Government and Members of Parliament, so that they can address the problems that cause such schools not to perform well. I have heard that schools cannot be ranked because some of them are poorly resourced. Poor resourcing of schools is one of the most important reasons as to why we should rank their performance. That way, we can highlight schools and regions which are poorly resourced with a view to taking affirmative action in favour of such institutions. I have heard people say that ranking causes problems. Ranking does not cause problems. Ranking yields competition that is based on discipline. When students who have scored ‘A’ are interviewed, they say that it is because of discipline, participation of other people and relationships within the school that they have performed well. None of them says it is because of the good classrooms of their school. None of them says that it is because of the resources that are given to their schools. We know that resources are important but provision of resources is not the work of students. The work of resource allocation belongs to Parliament, the Executive and parents. Why do we want to abolish ranking so that we can stop getting worried about the poor? When we do not do ranking in schools and students perform poorly, nobody will be bothered since nobody will know. This is one way of the Ministry of Education hiding its inefficiencies and misleading Kenyans that all is well since there will be no crisis after examinations. We would like ranking reinstated so that we can know who is not getting along and who is not benefitting properly from devolution. We need to know particularly since devolution came in, whether we are creating inequalities or we are closing the gaps of inequalities that have been there. One reason for devolution was to treat the inequalities that exist in this country. On the other hand, the indicator of inequalities can be seen through ranking. The ranking itself shows us where things are not working. It is so important to realize good governance is key to performance in education. We can only have good governance through its performance. Otherwise, we will have a lot of people leading institutions of higher learning comfortably because nobody will ever highlight 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."
}