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    "id": 563961,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/563961/?format=api",
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    "content": "other Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) areas and any other area with staffing shortage. The staffing shortage nationally for both primary and secondary schools is close to 90,000. Therefore, it will be very important if this programme can be extended to ASAL areas, as proposed by my colleagues, and we agree with them. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I also noted from the contributions how county governments should partner with the national Government in regard to matters that relate to education. We know that the county governments are tasked in terms of functions with the responsibility of ensuring that they offer or support Early Childhood Development education (ECD). But they can also partner with the national Government to ensure that primary or even secondary education is supported through the country governments. This is something they can do through an intergovernmental arrangement. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, a number of my colleagues have spoken about how dangerous it can be to leave students unattended or without teachers. It can lead to bad vices like drug abuse, alcoholism, extremism, terrorism, banditry and cattle rustling probably in areas like Turkana or Pokot. If the Government does not care for anything else, it should care for the fact that leaving these students without education can be harmful to this country even in the future. A number of my colleagues have very eloquently – and I did this when I was moving this Motion – spoken about the constitutional provisions. I do not want to repeat them. The impact on social and economic development now and in the future is not something that we can underestimate. Therefore, it is important that we actually pass this Motion the way it is proposed. The concerns of a number of my colleagues, having called this a very desperate moment for the people in the north eastern region and the proposal that we need to take extraordinary measures, are very important. I hope that the Ministry of Education can pick up this very quickly. We come from a region which has been marginalized for long, and it is not a secret. Sessional Paper No.10 of 1963 is well in record. I will not say that we are marginalized today, because successive governments, including the current one, have improved the status. I do not want to deny that the Government in the last 15 years has somehow changed the approach. But as most colleagues said, when you are doing affirmative action to remedy a very bad situation that has lasted for the last 40 to 50 years, then what we need is the marshalling of sufficient resources and deployment of sufficient human resource so that we are able to develop that region to be at par with the rest of the country. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we were taught by both local and non-local untrained teachers in the early days and they performed as good as the trained ones. So, given the opportunity, this will definitely help. In fact, we are not only facing a shortage of teachers but have a crisis and an emergency in the north eastern region. Therefore, the recruitment of those teachers will, definitely, be a solution to our problem. One of the Senators said that the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) is proposing the recruitment of retired teachers. This will not improve the situation. It is better to recruit young people who have energy and leave out those who are very tired, as much as we want to have that gap filled. 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."
}