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{
    "id": 839615,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/839615/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 305,
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    "content": "We, as Senators, should go to our villages and encourage our children to embrace these institutions. Sen. (Prof.) Kamar and I had done so. There is a TTI where I come from. It has 200 students. This year we have gone round preaching to these students and telling them the Government has provided Kshs30,000 capitation and that there is a loan of Kshs40,000. Yesterday, I was told by the principal that I should not tell the students about enrolment anymore because there are no more vacancies. They have enrolled 1,700 students. The challenge now comes to the vocational training centres within our counties. We must ask the county assemblies to come up with Bills that will provide finance to TIVETs by equipping them with proper facilities. This has been a great challenge to them. If you read the latest Controller of Budget Report, it shows that many counties had budgeted for these centres. However, they never used it. For example, one county had set aside Kshs40 million, but the money was not used. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we must encourage our county assemblies and county governments to make sure that any money that is budgeted for these centres must be used for construction and provision of facilities. There are many students who never completed primary education. They are in dire need of acquiring skills. The only challenge for them is finances. Our county governments use most of their money in building secondary and primary schools. This is not their mandate, but for the national Government. I advised the County Government of Bomet to concentrate on building these vocational training centres. As the Senators, we must put emphasis on vocational training centres. Apart from the fees issues and the attitude of learners that plays negatively on the enrolment, the other challenge is what we call policy road blocks. The vocational training centres in our counties insist that for one to be admitted; they must have completed Standard Eight. However, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) report confirms that there are so many youths in our villages who have not completed Standard Eight. Those vocational training centres in the villages should be open to interested learners when it comes to admission. They should even admit those who dropped at Standard Five because we do not ask the mechanics their level of education whenever we go to repair our vehicles. They should be allowed to go there en masse to be trained so that they can get the skills. In fact, examinations in those areas should be skill-based and not necessarily academic. We should avoid a lot of academics in such programmes because that is what discourages the youth. Apart from establishing so many of these colleges, we should we reduce the bureaucratic red tapes that are required for admission for every youth in this country to benefit. In my village, there are so many youths who have never reached Standard Eight and when you tell them to go to the vocational training centres, they will tell you that they do not have Standard Eight certificates. We should come up with policies that will help them to be trained to get the skills and go to their places of work without them being asked for so many requirements. Today, we were happy when we went to Mugundoi Vocational Training Centre because the management told us of the success stories of their students. We were given a The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}