Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 802108,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/802108/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 165,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Melly",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 12849,
        "legal_name": "Julius Kipbiwot Melly",
        "slug": "julius-kipbiwot-melly"
    },
    "content": "Education and Research, for the good work we have done. The 2018/2019 proposed Budget for Education has five spending agencies. The Education Budget is Kshs439.1 billion. This is the second highest sector in terms of resource allocation in the Budget. Let me point out the importance the Government has placed in this sector. You need to note that this is a sector that assists in enabling the Big Four Agenda. The various State agencies and their allocation is as follows: State Department of Early Learning and Basic Education has Kshs96.6 billion, State Department of Vocational and Technical Training has Kshs 10.3 billion, State Department of Research and University Education has Kshs100 billion, and State Department of Post Training and Skills Development has Kshs 1.9 billion. This is a very new department. The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) which is the largest among these departments has Kshs227 billion. The various areas of spending which have been given priority in the 2018/2019 Budget include resources to support Free Primary and Secondary Education. One of the flagship projects of this Government is to ensure that we have free access to primary and secondary education at 100 per cent transition. In the last year, a number of schools were built through the infrastructure improvement funds. There is also a lot of money allocated to funding of the university education, management of teacher resource, research as well as expansion and improvement of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions. As part of our role in overseeing the Ministry in Budget matters, allow me to point out some of the key issues of concern which the Committee observed. To achieve 100 per cent transition in secondary schools, we noted that we need enough teachers. In the last Budget, we were not allocated enough money to recruit teachers. In fact, in this Budget we have an underfunding of Kshs10 billion. Over and above what we got in this Financial Year, we still need over 20,000 teachers. The Committee noted that the school feeding programme is doing well; however, we have a number of communities who were moving across especially in the Arid and Semi- Arid Lands (ASAL). We need the Ministry to do more, by trying to make sure that they meet these communities and are able to follow them so that these children can go to school. It has been noted in some areas in West Pokot, student population increases when food is given to students in those particular schools. We need to put a lot of emphasis on this. The Committee also noted that the Ministry has begun capturing learner’s details in various levels of education through education management and information systems. This is a commendable job. The education management and conventional system has enabled the Government to really weed out ghost students. Now money can be given to schools based on students having their own numbers and their own names not based on population and data given by teachers. This is a commendable work that has been happening. The expansion of the TVET infrastructure has been going on, but I want to note and commend Hon. Members in this House because this is a programme that has been running in all the constituencies with the support of Members of Parliament. A number of Members of Parliament have given out Kshs10 million as seed capital. They also provided land, electricity and water. But in this case, in the last Parliament, there was spending which was cut but this has been reinstated. We will now have the 60 which are already complete and the 70 which funds have been allocated for and they will now be completed. The money that we requested and added to this particular sector is to recruit enough teachers whom we call trainers so that those particular institutions are operational. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}