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{
    "id": 945878,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/945878/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 203,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Funyula, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Dr. Wilberforce Oundo",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13331,
        "legal_name": "Wilberforce Ojiambo Oundo",
        "slug": "wilberforce-ojiambo-oundo-2"
    },
    "content": "expand these technical training institutes. It is incumbent upon the county governments to invest heavily in modernising the village polytechnics or vocational training centres to enable students have a positive mindset and enrol for training programmes in those training institute. As we are aware, it is government policy that each constituency must have a technical training institute. Again, the challenge is that many of our young people, who do not qualify to join university, naturally end up being demoralised. Motivating them to join these institutions has been a herculean task. We keep on preaching this message wherever we go. The Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) provides Kshs40,000 and Government capitation of around Kshs30,000. With that kind of funding, it is adequate to sustain students in class for a whole academic year for the two-and-half year certificate course and the three-year diploma. I urge young people all over Kenya to seize this opportunity to equip themselves with skills to enable them sustain their lives after secondary school. Refusing to join these institutions because you think the training is not worth your time, and that they are reserved for people who did not make it to university, is a recipe to generally undermining your life in the coming years. I also urge the Government to ensure that there are outreach programmes because many students are not aware of the existence of these opportunities. I urge school principals and career masters in secondary schools to take this opportunity to preach the gospel to students who are about to sit for their Form Four and Standard Eight exams: That career choices in this country are boundless. Opportunities are there. It is only that things have changed. The days of the white collar jobs are gone. The days when one would get a Form Four certificate and be entitled to a white collar job – where one would put on a suit and sit on a swinging chair with a telephone headset on his desk – are all dreams. We must leave dreamland and come back to reality. I want the Ministry of Education to seriously have a look at the management of universities. Have a look at the courses being offered by universities and how those universities administer trainings. It beats logic for a university to offer a certificate and a diploma course. Universities should focus on undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate programmes. They should venture into research and dissemination of information. Packing classrooms with students to compete with TIVETs and other vocational training centres, offering certificates in animal production and automotive engineering is really to miss the point or essence of a university. Universities should also stop offering courses that no longer attract students – courses that do not support Vision 2030 and the Big Four Agenda – so that they free space and facilities for courses that support the Big Four Agenda. I am talking about training that support manufacturing. This country will not develop unless we invest in manufacturing, value addition, and in activities that create employment. We should invest inventures that create money in the economy. I have nothing against some art-based courses or humanity-based courses. However, it gets to a point when you have to make a decision to solve a problem once and for all and go back to do other things. With those few remarks, I support the Motion hoping that when we are done with it, it will be brought back in the form of a Bill for enactment into law. Thank you, Hon. Speaker. With those few remarks, I support the Motion. I hope that when we are done with the Motion, my colleague will capture this in a Bill so that we debate and enact it in this House. Thank you."
}