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{
    "id": 697395,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/697395/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 100,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ogolla",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1264,
        "legal_name": "Gideon Ochanda Ogolla",
        "slug": "gideon-ochanda-ogolla"
    },
    "content": "So, these are some of the things that are important to look at when talking about childhood issues. The phenomenon is new in terms of policy development in this country but it is so critical that it is looked at and the Government takes it more seriously as we move forward. We need to allow our children to grow normally. Children need to be given an opportunity to be children. There is one thing that is happening that is not right in this country. In as much as we are talking about examples such as recent happenings in Kisii, some are not as direct as those we are quoting. When we talk about child development, and we look at the situation such as the case of parallel degree programmes where parents are competing with children for the little resources they have in their homes, to an extent that sometimes a parent will chose to go to university and pay for the parallel degree programme and leave a child in Form Two without fees, it is a challenge. So, in as much as we are talking about those that are direct, there are many other indirect challenges that children are undergoing. I believe that many of us are experiencing this. As we look at issues of bursaries in our constituencies, you realise that somebody looks for a bursary because he or she is a primary school teacher and is also doing a parallel degree programme and his or her children are also in school. So, they are competing in the same house to an extent that the parent chooses to be in school other than the child who is in Form Two. That is one thing that needs to be looked at and we have to guard against that. There is the issue of the Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) programmes. We know that our Constitution has given this function to the county government but then, there is a distinction between the service and how it is offered. The teachers who teach in ECDE are employed by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), but the programme is under the county governments. This confusion has caused a bit of competition. Many governors are not looking at a situation where there is supposed to be a kind of a relationship between what the county government does and what the national Government does. So, to an extent, they look at the ECDE teachers as helpers and not as teachers."
}