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{
    "id": 601664,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/601664/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 139,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Dr.) Pukose",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1458,
        "legal_name": "Robert Pukose",
        "slug": "robert-pukose"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for allowing me to contribute to the Basic Education (Amendment) Bill, 2014. At the outset, I want to thank the President for having seen it wise to have TSC, Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers (KUPPET) sit down and resolve the issue that is affecting teachers. When we met many of the teachers out there, they were feeling very frustrated. But their morale is now up and we hope that they have received their salaries and things will be normalised. The three bodies will sit down and come up with a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that is agreeable for them so that education in this country is not interrupted. Looking at the amendment to Clause 6 in this Basic Education (Amendment) Bill, the TSC is now mandated to assign teachers to the public institutions of basic education and institutions used for conducting pre-primary education, child-care, home craft and village polytechnics. This is going to remove the doubt which was there on who should employ pre- primary education teachers. Some counties are trying to change the names so that the county governments can recruit them. We are aware of a case pending in court - and which has actually stagnated for a long time - after KNUT went to court to prevent the county governments from employing pre-primary teachers. Once this law comes into effect, it will be mandatory, through regulations, that the county governments are able to give the TSC the number of teachers they expect and assist them to recruit. This is going to assist us to end favouritism and employ people who are competent without favouring the one who is from your community or your voter. The calibre of employees that we have seen in the county government is not up to standard. At times, it is very difficult for them to offer or implement services. We have seen that in the e- procurement system where the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) is becoming a problem in implementing. You find that governors want to give tenders to their buddies who do not meet the required regulations. You must feed the correct information in the IFIMIS for it to give you the necessary procurement process. The other issue I want to oppose is Clause 11 which proposes to delete the provision that requires pupils to be given appropriate incentives to learn and complete their basic education. Students used to be given Nyayo milk. In some areas, that was not just an incentive; it was a basic requirement. As my colleague Hon. Ferdinand Wanyonyi has said, in some of our constituencies, we have rural slums. In a rural slum in my constituency children who go to a school like Cholim School at times have to leave school to engage in child labour to get food. This is an area that I would urge the Departmental Committee on Education, Research and Technology, whose Chairperson is here, to look at. There is need to introduce school-feeding programmes that will look at areas that are disadvantaged within this community. If you have a child in Kalwenge who goes to school and he knows there is no food at home, how is that child going to compete with another child in the city or in other areas, who will go back home and be 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."
}