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{
    "id": 698273,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/698273/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 140,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Bunyasi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2511,
        "legal_name": "John Sakwa Bunyasi",
        "slug": "john-sakwa-bunyasi"
    },
    "content": "In Nambale, we are developing primary schools, but we need nursery schools in all those institutions. We are going for a minimum of three-and-a-half kilometres. It is still around five kilometres. Our early childhood centres are located near primary schools. This means the guaranteed distance maybe about five kilometres. Five kilometres for a three year old child is not doable. Parents whose main source of income is labour will not be available to carry their children to school and pick them up. We may be imposing an undoable mandate on parents. We must get a serious commitment in terms of investment in school infrastructure. If the Bill is going to apply across the country without variations, we should ensure that the maximum distance to be covered by a three year old or four year old child will be one or two kilometres. Perhaps, I will bring an amendment that will allow for variations across the country in respect of the minimum age and the maximum distances to be travelled by children as they go to school. People in the rural areas will then seek to get accommodation based on the distance of the school. This is not applicable to urban schools. This Bill gives little weight to parents. We cannot take away the rights of parents by legislation. We are not even attempting to define it so that we can get a process where parents understand their rights and obligations. You cannot take away these responsibilities from parents through legislation. What about home schooling? There are parents who can provide an upbringing and formal education without a curriculum developed by a public institution, but one that develops the child’s cognitive skills in preparation for pen primary school participation with other children. What is the role of the parent in this Bill? I have looked at the Bill very carefully, but I cannot see the role of the parent. The Bill must recognise the role of home schooling and other roles that parents play. It is very important to recognise home education as one of the institutions in the community. What is education? I am not an educationist, but I am a parent and a grandparent. What do our children get at home that is beneficial to them when they go to school? By the time we went to school, we were advanced in our basic Biology. We had knowledge about plant and animal lives. We transferred all that knowledge to formal schooling. We will bring up children learning some words for the first time in foreign languages, but cannot reinforce the same at home unless they have educated parents. Home education should be clearly brought out in this Bill. We are talking as if we have already provided this for every primary school and that we now want to expand it to other free standing facilities. In my constituency, we are still catching up with ECDE classes in primary schools, and that would have been the easiest thing to do. I have a feeling that this will not be easy. In Nambale, we have about 55 primary schools with only 20 of them offering ECDE education. How do we achieve that? We have a Bill that is providing a mandate that is going to be funded. Registration should be facilitative. It should be aimed at making sure that parents are allowed to construct a school for as long as it is recognised officially through registration, so that it can enter the public planning and expenditure process. Registration of primary schools in my constituency has been controlled. One officer would claim that the Ministry reins in on establishment of new schools. In areas where we are struggling to improve access by ensuring that our little children get standards that are nearly universal, registration is a stumbling block. I cannot imagine the situation in areas where access to education is still a luxury. We should make access to education 100 per cent universal at the right age. Schools are being registered through some sort of administrative fiats communicated down from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. I talked to my colleague in the Departmental Committee on Education, Science 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."
}