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{
    "id": 563911,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/563911/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 176,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "The Motion asks the national Government to immediately reintroduce the untrained teacher programme as well as in-service training for untrained teachers in the north eastern region as a measure to bridge the shortage of teachers. I agree with the Mover of the Motion because Article 56 of the Constitution addresses the issue of minorities and marginalised groups. It states: “The State shall put in place affirmative action programmes designed to ensure that minorities and marginalised groups— (b) are provided special opportunities in educational and economic fields;” Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this Motion is rightly before the House. I support the Motion. As I speak, many of our children of school going age cannot access education since the teachers left the north eastern counties due to insecurity. I welcome this Motion because we cannot watch helplessly as the education crumbles in some counties. For instance, sometimes back in Turkana, chiefs had volunteered to teach children in schools. In the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) areas, we have volunteers who have signed up to teach and ensure that students continue with their education. If the untrained teacher programme is introduced, we shall have Form Four or Form Six graduates who live within the affected regions opting to join this programme. Therefore, challenges of teachers who are foreigners in the ASALs will be addressed because we shall have the locals teaching in the regions where their children are affected. This Motion is very good. We cannot leave the education sector to go down like that. It is a blow to Kenya’s performance on our Millennium Development Goal (MDG) No. 2 which seeks to achieve Universal Primary Education by 2015. The national Government needs to take strong measures so that the estimated 2,000 teachers who have fled the area are replaced by the untrained teachers who will be reintroduced in this programme to fill that vacuum left by the trained teachers. ASALs are hardship areas. If you are paying a teacher the same amount as one who teaches in Nairobi, that is not fair. Teachers in those areas should be paid more so that they can be motivated. If there is no motivation, performance will decline. The health sector has also been affected because of insecurity. Many doctors and nurses have opted to go back home or seek greener pastures elsewhere because they do not enjoy that incentive. For instance, if a police station is attacked, how safe is the common person? That is one thing we need to ask ourselves. Sometimes we have seen our own policemen being disarmed by Al Shabaab. Are Al Shabaab clever than our trained forces? The forces have been trained so that---"
}