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{
"id": 942275,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/942275/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Tharaka, DP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. George Gitonga",
"speaker": {
"id": 13491,
"legal_name": "George Gitonga Murugara",
"slug": "george-gitonga-murugara"
},
"content": "institutions and universities, we may be talking about mass education. But we have to lay emphasis on quality education. This is the reason the Government must allocate enough resources to take care of infrastructure in terms of school equipment, learning schemes, books, desks, laptops and other learning facilities. Our county governments must also emphasise on Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) by building appropriate classrooms, furnishing them and ensuring children in nursery schools have sufficient learning materials. We also have another facility emphasised by the Government through the Ministry of Energy that all schools must have electricity for purposes of learning. I regret because in my constituency, we can only boast of 9.5 per cent connectivity to the electricity grid with almost 90 per cent of the schools lacking electricity. I have been following this up with the Ministry of Energy to know exactly what crime the people of Tharaka committed, so they can be treated with such inequities with regards to distribution of electricity. I have not received any fair response to my questions and enquiries, but I am assured that there will be an affirmative action which will ensure that all primary and secondary schools, universities and tertiary institutions are connected to electricity for purposes of learning. The Government must also allocate sufficient revenue to schools, so that we can realise the goals we are debating this morning. The Big Four Agenda of the Government is good enough since it focuses on food, infrastructure, housing and health, but we must remind the Government that is not just infrastructure and housing that are important. We need to hear more about food, health and introduce a fifth agenda which is quality education for our pupils, students and other learners. We know that TVETs are important. Our children acquire skills that are needed to get employment. The youth should have marketable skills for self-employment and self-reliance because formal jobs are not available and what is available is highly competitive. Therefore, we are not able to help the young people who are out to market themselves as qualified people. This is why we are saying that we should have a policy in place to ensure 100 per cent transition from secondary school to tertiary institutions and universities. When we talk about tertiary institutions, let us give what is useful to our youths. Enrolling a child in a TVET to study sociology or anthropology is not training the child in the right direction. However, when we enroll them to learn life skills like hair dressers, cooking, welding and engineering, it is important for their lives. Some courses that are being offered cast some doubt as to whether we are preparing our children for life skills. It is also important to talk about disability. When we transit children from primary school to secondary school and from secondary school to tertiary institutions and university, we should give emphasis to youth living with disabilities. We have schools being opened across the constituencies to take care of the disabled. They must also be trained, so that they can learn skills and earn their lives without depending on others. These guys are not disabled. They just have a little bit less than us who think we are ordinary. Therefore, as we move to the 100 per cent transition from secondary to tertiary institutions, let us remember persons living with disabilities. As I conclude, let me say that where the Government makes a pledge to assist schools especially in rural Kenya and money is budgeted, that budget should be realised. The Kamu Tuando Primary School in my constituency, which is not in a good state, has been allocated Kshs10 million by the Ministry of Education for development purposes like infrastructure. For the last two years, I have been chasing this money, so that the school can be developed like other schools, but I have not succeeded. I hope the Ministry can hear me and act on this. 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."
}