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{
    "id": 601574,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/601574/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 49,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Maanzo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2197,
        "legal_name": "Daniel Kitonga Maanzo",
        "slug": "daniel-kitonga-maanzo"
    },
    "content": "Thank you. You will find a place like Madrasa and other pastoral centres such as a Catholic-sponsored school giving spiritual education to children. If an individual is the sponsor of that institution and children going to that institution are from the public, there has to be a mechanism on how to make this better and specific. If the sponsor is a church or institution, their roles should be defined. If the sponsor is an individual who donates a piece of land to a school, then it should be clear that they part with it to the school or the community for good. This will help in clearly defining a sponsor. Other than sponsor, we could introduce a legal mechanism for ensuring that once a sponsor donates land, he or she should part with the title deed of the piece of land, and a new title is issued to the school. There should be a distinction. Currently, it is unclear and a sponsor could attach his or her interests to the school and eventually create problems. On the issue of the constitution of the board, there should be a good attempt to be all inclusive. I have seen that the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and Kenya Primary Schools Head Teachers Association (KEPSHA) are represented. These are the elected leaders in the sector who will rightfully sit in these boards. The role of Members of Parliament in the school needs to be understood. Under the Constitution, the Member of Parliament is the one who takes care of education from the national to the county level. The counties are responsible for nursery schools and the polytechnics. It should come out clearly in this law, so that there will be no problems of interpretation or conflict of roles as to what the county will do and what the national Government will do at the basic level to ensure that our children get education. There are other issues that touch on children. The law should target the interest of the children more, despite the fact that there are other Acts of Parliament that do so; when it comes to education, the law we are making should cover it. We should make sure that facilities of the school are proper and protected by law, so that children are safe in premises where basic education is given. Additionally, we should ensure that clean piped water is supplied to schools. In case there is no clean piped water, there should be a policy of ensuring that every school has clean roofs just as most of us, Members of Parliament. For instance, I am currently renovating schools and changing their roofs. That notwithstanding, there should be a more compelling provision in this law, so that in cases where there is no piped water in schools the school, in collaboration with the county, harvests water, so that all schools have clean water. Children who are thirsty and are not well fed, are not likely to perform well at school even if they are bright. We, therefore, need to ensure the nitty-gritty is provided for in this law. This will best come in during the Committee of the whole House stage. We should ensure that provision of free basic education to students in this country is achieved. 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."
}