Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 670992,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/670992/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 262,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Education Board will be to vet and find out exactly who are the deserving needy cases from those lists from heads of institutions and recommend them for Government support. This is a step in the right direction. I look forward to the day education will be free, not just in primary and secondary school, but all education, like it is the case in the Federal Republic of Germany and in all Scandinavian countries such as Finland, Norway and Sweden. I long for the day in this country when a child can go to school and learn free of charge from early childhood to university. In fact, in countries like the ones I have mentioned, education is free up to PhD level, and that is the dream that we should have for our nation. Going forward, I hope that we will be in a position to even extend the support, now that we are talking about basic education. Government support should not be limited to public institutions but also to students in private institutions. The reason being; we do not have private students, but only private institutions. An institution can be private but the student is not private. A student is a Kenyan and the fact that we do not have enough space in secondary schools to absorb all our children should compel Government to support all learners, whether they are in public or private schools. The people offering private education are helping the Government to meet its obligations, and they should therefore not be punished by virtue of the fact that they have invested in private education. That should be something for the future. Madam Temporary Speaker, the desire of the Jubilee Government is to realize the Constitution, especially with regard to compulsory basic education as provided for in Article 43 of the Constitution. The courts have already given direction on the issue of socio-economic rights, including the right to education and they have said that in this country, and in the few others which have similar provisions, not many countries are bold enough to constitutionalize socio-economic rights in the Bill of Rights. Even very advanced and rich countries have avoided including socio-economic factors in the Bill of Rights to avoid the economic cost and the fact that it is argued that sometimes you do not want to put things in the Constitution that cannot be realized. Outside Kenya, I know of South Africa which has identical provisions on the right to basic education. In the other countries, they pursue these things as objectives of national development and policy. In some countries such as in the constitutions of Namibia, Peru and Spain, these socio-economic cries such as health and education are provided as guidelines that should guide state policy as opposed to enforceable human rights under the Bill of Rights. I think our Constitution is very progressive and ambitious, but I think we would rather have an ambitious Constitution, struggle to implement it, than to have nothing at all. I am very proud when I look at the quality and the standards in our Constitution. Madam Temporary Speaker, because of time, allow me to highlight two or three other clauses. The first is Clause 13, which just amends section 56(1) of the Basic Education Act to include more members into the county education board. This will include four persons elected to represent parents or pupils in the school or from the local community in the case of a secondary school. The head of the institution should be a member of the County Education Board as the secretary to the board. 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"
}