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{
    "id": 677765,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/677765/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 367,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Zani",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13119,
        "legal_name": "Agnes Zani",
        "slug": "agnes-zani"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, it is a sad time for this country which has worked hard on its education system. Education is one of the greatest pillars for social mobility and general human development. Since Independence, there have been various commissions on education matters which produced various reports, including, the Gachathi Report and the Koech Report. These reports have proposed various systems of education over time and made various suggestions. With all that, we still have chaos within the educational sector, for example, about the system that we want to adapt in terms of education. We keep moving from a system that gives many years in primary to one that gives the 8-4-4 system. The tenet of the 8-4-4 system was to ensure that people gets some skills to enable them look for employment. We are already considering further reforms in our education sector, thus producing students whom we do not know. We do not know whether they are targeting to be self employed or they are getting the right skills. The other problem is the curriculum that we have within the education system. What sort of Kenya are we trying to develop through our educational system? What sort of values do we hope this Kenya will have? Is there anything in the curriculum that addresses these values? By 1990, there was a core education curriculum and subjects to ensure that these values are instilled in our young people. They included social education and ethics and religious education. We had the support from members of the family including parents; the issue of parents not having enough time for their children due to commitments did not exist. We seem not to have a value system anymore. We do not have values that can lead us to patriotism; thinking about the importance of institutions. It was very rare to witness riots in the universities and students would never burn their own institutions. They would riot out there, but make sure that their libraries and classrooms are safe. However, this started changing about ten years ago. Students are turning inwards and destroying their own institutions. The question to the students who are rioting is: What will they sit for their examinations from if they burn down their schools? Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, one of the reasons for what is happening is cheating in examinations. The levels of cheating have increased across all the institutions, unfortunately with all the stakeholders quite aware about this situation and not working hard enough to ensure that it is appropriately addressed. It started with what we used to call ‘ mwakenya’, a small piece of paper that students used to write some answers. The last time I caught a student cheating, he was using three foolscaps. How did he expect to remove the foolscaps, read through them and answer questions? It meant that he had not revised at all. We have students who will come out of that system and become doctors and lawyers. If a student gets a mean grade of “A” through cheating and goes ahead to study Medicine, he or she will be expected to treat patients and administer medicine. This is very dangerous. I know that there are various factors that come into play, which we need to address. Various stakeholders’ meetings have been held at various levels, but when the crisis begun, we needed to have been able to hold a roundtable meeting with all the 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"
}