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{
    "id": 700276,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/700276/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 524,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Eng.) Gumbo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 24,
        "legal_name": "Nicholas Gumbo",
        "slug": "nicholas-gumbo"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. Just to recap what I said yesterday, ECDE education is the foundation of education in any nation. Since it is the foundation, if it is weak, the rest of the structure will be weak. I said, free cannot only be interpreted to mean free of payment. These children need water, health services and clothing. Above all, these children need food. If we are to make ECDE truly free, then we have to provide water, health services, uniforms and food to these children. I am gratified to note that this Bill talks about suitable premises for these children. Part of the problem that we have encountered in this country, and it is still very sad, is that almost 50 years into our Independence, we still have students in many parts of this country who still go to school under trees. We still have many children in many parts of this country who use rocks as benches. If we cannot provide suitable premises, I think we are endangering the lives of these children. The provision to have mobile schools is important. There are people in a large part of our country that are still nomadic in nature. If we are to confine them to particular areas, we will be restricting access to education. This Bill, under Clause 39, provides for free admission into public education centres. This is good, but it was said yesterday, if we are to make ECDE free and compulsory, we must be able to identify these students. It is time we built synergy with other people who provide equally useful services in areas where we live. If, indeed, we have to know where the children are, we have to use the services of village elders. The elders give a useful service in the sense that they have a lot of useful data that can help us to identify the individual homes where the children come from and establish why they are unable to access the free learning centres. In addition to village elders, we also have community health workers. I am sure where you come from they have data on virtually everything on matters of health. They have all the statistics that matter. We have put, under Clause 41, a restriction on the age of admission. I have seen many cases where parents take children as young as one-and-a-half years old to ECDE centres. For me, that is child abuse. People cannot get children and then immediately relinquish their parental responsibilities by pushing away those children as if the caretakers and the ECDE centres have more responsibility for the welfare of the children than the parents. We need to introduce punishment for parents who push their children to the directors of ECDE centres as a way of escaping their parental responsibilities. Parenting cannot be outsourced. There is no question about it. A lot of times, Kenyan irresponsible parents attempt to outsource parenting. How do you outsource parenting? What else are we going to outsource next? Is it the art of getting the children? We cannot. When we make children, we do not outsource. Therefore, we should not outsource parenting. Any parent who attempts to outsource parenting should be punished by law. I have talked about feeding programmes in education centres. 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."
}