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{
    "id": 772042,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/772042/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 447,
    "type": "other",
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    "content": "students up to 16, 20 or 24 who will be presented for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE). That is why they do well in the national examinations whereas a public school has a population of between 100-200 pupils. If you go to Kwale County- I actually visited some of those schools - I found children being taught under a mnazi tree. I was pained because this is not the way we want to create a human resource for this nation where others are ahead and others behind. No wonder when you see this bitterness in the overall structure of government, it is emanating out of those missed opportunities they have had without anything else. When I was in North Eastern, when you go to Wajir, Buna, Gurar and come down to Habaswein, these people are missing out in the action. That is why through the Arab Bank we tried to bring in some sense in trying to support these teachers. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in your own county Tharaka Nithi, there is a lot to be done. If you go there, there are only certain areas within Meru where there is a concentration of high manpower. We have this indifference between one class of the same people with another of the same people. The only way we can equalize these differences is being able to send adequate teachers so that we are able to attain a respectable teacher-pupil ratio so that the children learn under an enabling environment for them to excel. The worst of it has been the book pupil ratio; the number of textbooks being supplied to a child. We tried to get this through the school boards which we restructured so that the money they get can go to the purchase of books. One area that needs to be audited is: Are the boards doing exactly what the infrastructure - the book fund - was supposed to do in every public school? I am in agreement with Sen. Poghisio that all these prumbular statements: whereas, and, when sounds like United Nations Organisation (UN) language. In that language when you want to be amorphous you just leave it there because already there is no decision made. As a Senate, we want to agree here that the elements and sentiments expressed in this Motion are far deep and wider than when we are looking at them at this stage. There is, of course, the question of incentives for teachers. When you talk to teachers unions they can be pretty recalcitrant. They are the people who talk about incentives and are right to do so. When you look at their remuneration package, they are very resourceful people if you handle them carefully. They can be extremely difficult if you handle them wrongly. We need to have a dialogue. It is always necessary to have a nationwide dialogue on matters that affect the nation. Dialogue is a solution to anything that you need to resolve. However, do not resign it to a few individuals thinking that they can solve this matter. Education has reached a level where we must intervene now as a House, so that we give direction on how it is being handled. The rapid change of the curriculum before the poor children understand what portends the change of that curriculum is another issue that needs to be looked at. The teachers we are trying to deploy to these schools have not been trained on the new curriculum. How do you expect them to carry out a curriculum which is not there? The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes"
}