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{
"id": 92821,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/92821/?format=api",
"text_counter": 184,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Prof. Ongeri",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Education",
"speaker": {
"id": 124,
"legal_name": "Samson Kegeo Ongeri",
"slug": "samson-ongeri"
},
"content": "In the current Financial Year 2010/201, my Ministry has been allocated a total of Kshs4,058,000,000 for the following activities under the Economic Recovery and Poverty Alleviation Programme:- Contract teachers â Kshs2,013,000,000; infrastructure improvement in national schools â Kshs750 million; purchase of computers in each constituency â Kshs980 million and planting of seedlings in primary schools â Kshs315 million, making a total of Kshs4,058,000,000. With regard to employment of teachers, I am happy to inform the hon. Members that the misunderstanding which prevented the Ministry from utilizing funds allocated for hiring of contract teachers during the last financial year, has now been sorted out. I wish, therefore, to assure this House that my Ministry will move with speed and, indeed, we have moved with speed and have made all the necessary advertisements and all the officers were fully briefed yesterday. This programme will move into full gear and implementation with expectation that by the start of the third term, the teachers will be in the classrooms. This, therefore, entails that the 66 teachers for primary schools and 20 teachers for secondary schools will be available for every constituency. Through this exercise, we hope to recruit a total of 18,060 to alleviate the current shortage, thereby enhancing learning standards in schools. The employment of these contract teachers will, however, not adequately address the big teachersâ shortage in our schools, which currently stands at 66,000. I, therefore, call upon the Treasury to consider availing more funds to my Ministry for employment of permanent teachers as provided for under Vision 2030. With regard to the infrastructure development of our national schools, purchase of computers and planting of seedlings in our schools, I wish to inform this House that my Ministry has been working closely with the Treasury to ensure that adequate preparations are made in targeted schools to enable us to release the funds as early as possible. I am also happy to inform the Members that my Ministry is working closely with the Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources with a view to starting a more robust sustainable approach to environmental management in our schools. The two Ministries, together with other collaborating Ministries, will shortly be making an announcement on the details of this collaboration. For a long time, our Adult Education Programme has been constrained by the low numbers of full time teachers. The sub-sector has also continued to suffer a negative perception held by many Kenyan adults, some of whom should enroll for adult education. The Adult Education Programme has been operating with only 1,549 full-time adult teachers. The situation has now improved since the beginning of this financial year when the Ministry employed a total of 880 full-time adult education teachers, who have already been posted to all parts of the country. Apart from the adult education teachers, my Ministry has also recruited a total of 1,780 junior officers to improve services, particularly in the newly created districts bringing the total number of newly created officers to 2,588. Our education system can only be assured of retaining its high standards if the curriculum being in use in schools is of the highest standards. In this regard, my Ministry has deliberately embarked on a programme of strengthening the Kenya Institute of Education (KIE) with a view to enhancing its capacity to produce quality curriculum and curriculum support materials. Already, the KIE is using electronic curriculum support materials through recently launched education channel, which means that we can access all learners in the country whether in public or private institutions. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish to thank the Treasury for increasing the funding for the Free Primary Education and the Free Day Secondary Education programmes by an amount of Kshs2 billion each. This clearly underscores the Governmentâs commitment on two important programmes. The enrolment in public primary schools currently stands at 8.4 million pupils while that of secondary schools stands at 1.5 million students. The current budgetary provisions under these important programmes are, however, not adequate to meet the allocations per student. My Ministry is, therefore, consulting with the Treasury with a view to addressing this shortfall. Hon. Members will recall that when moving my Ministryâs Budget in this House for the last financial year, I had outlined the preparations we had made in readiness for the mainstreaming of the early childhood education into basic education. As you are aware, this programme was supposed to have been rolled out by January, 2010, but my Ministry could not be able to do this due to lack of budgetary provisions in last yearsâ Budget. I am sorry to report that our proposal for funding of this programme has, once again, not been considered. Therefore, this remains an issue that we want to raise with the Treasury if we have to acquire and attain education for all by 2015. I will now give the details of the budgetary allocations as given in this financial year. My Ministry has been allocated a total of Kshs131,479,760,000 gross in the Recurrent Vote and a sum of Kshs9,510,664,893 gross in the Development Vote. The current Estimates reflect an additional Kshs14,195,092,100 from the last yearâs budgetary allocation of Kshs117,284,667,900, while the Development Budget reflects a decrease of Kshs2,307,177,821 compared to last yearâs allocation of Kshs11,817,842,714. The following are the highlights of the major programmes in my Ministryâs Budget where the above resources will be applied. In the Recurrent Expenditure, Vote R31, a sum of Kshs131,479,760,000 is distributed under the following items. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Sub-vote 310, General Administration and Planning, with a sum of Kshs101,287,205,378, will cater for the Ministryâs administrative costs, including teachersâ salaries. Under this Sub-toe, I will require a total of Kshs101,287,205,378 distributed under the following Heads:-"
}