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{
    "id": 601565,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/601565/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 40,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kang’ata",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1826,
        "legal_name": "Irungu Kang'ata",
        "slug": "irungu-kangata"
    },
    "content": "The rationale of that amendment is that we need to protect young and bright students who are unable to go through our public secondary schools. I have noted that, indeed, when you go to any constituency, you will find even top students in a public school failing to go to top notch schools. I have noted that secondary schools like Mangu High School and Alliance have now been privatised in a sense. Rarely will you find a sufficient number of students from public primary schools joining those secondary schools. To that extent, I support this Bill. I will seek the guidance of the Chair at the appropriate time. I am doubtful as to whether the key issues which bedevil our public education at the secondary and primary school levels have been addressed by this Bill. I have always noted that we allocate almost Kshs200 billion of our national Budget to education. About 90 per cent of this allocation goes to salaries. A very small component goes to the children, who are the actual beneficiaries of the education system. I had proposed that we provide free food to every primary school student in our public schools. The rationale is that, first is the need to increase the retention of children in our public schools. Secondly, we need to ensure that we give standardised nutritional food to our school children. Thirdly, we should ensure that we give an incentive to children to attend school. This will also ensure that a bigger portion of the Kshs200 billion allocated to education goes to our children. I understand that teachers are good people and we need to support them. But it is also scandalous that a vast portion of the Kshs200 billion education budget goes to adults. Let us not forget the students. I will bring that amendment at the appropriate time. I will ask the Departmental Committee on Education, Research and Technology to support me when I bring that amendment to ensure that our children do not fail to go to school for lack of food. It is something that happens universally. Without exception, all progressive jurisdictions ensure that they give food to students attending public schools at the primary level. I have heard one of my colleagues cite studies, which I support. The more you invest in education, the better the returns for our society. The question has always been at what level we should invest. Is it at the university level, the primary school level or the secondary school level? The studies affirm that priority should be given to primary schools followed by secondary schools. Even if a person does not progress to the university level, at least he acquires very crucial skills at the primary school level, which help that person in making crucial decisions after leaving school. I ask this House to embrace the idea of funding more items in our schools. Another aspect which this Bill fails to address is inspection of schools – an aspect which has budgetary implications. In every county education office, we have people we call inspectors. In Kiharu, when I interact with education inspectors, I find that they are understaffed and underfunded. When I asked them when they last went out to inspect schools, they told me that they had stayed for a whole term without inspecting schools. When they do, they inspect very few schools. Therefore, inspection of schools may be a budget item that we need to consider. 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."
}