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{
    "id": 950952,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/950952/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 349,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Makueni, WDM-K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Daniel Maanzo",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2197,
        "legal_name": "Daniel Kitonga Maanzo",
        "slug": "daniel-kitonga-maanzo"
    },
    "content": "What I am trying to say is that when county governments do the infrastructure, they spend about Kshs2 million per classroom, but when the NG-CDF does that sort of infrastructure, they spend exactly half of that amount and you have a better classroom for the children. The point I am trying to drive home is that we need to harmonise education generally. Although there has been an administrative action of taking these functions to county governments and making them shared, education should be fully managed by the national Government, from early childhood education. Their teachers should be recruited by the TSC and should be free to join Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and those other associations, so that their rights can be fought for. I believe if we had a structure of that nature, it would work much better, so that all education has one responsible Cabinet Secretary in the entire country, who can take charge and ensure that we do not have negligence as witnessed recently. All children are supposed to be given priority. The interests of the child, according to the Children Act, are very important and prime and take precedence. We must ensure that all children receive good and fair early childhood education and have an opportunity equally in the whole country. We should not be having a situation like the one we have seen in the newspapers today, where some children are still learning under trees. The national Government should take up the challenge because the NG- CDF cannot meet all needs of all the schools. We usually give a budget to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and it should be used in the constituencies which have been left out for one reason or another or have been lagging behind because of lack of equalisation. That is why we enacted the Equalisation Fund to make sure all Kenyans have equal opportunities. It is really a serious challenge to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. I know they have a new broom in the name of the Cabinet Secretary, who will sweep better because he has managed education very well in the country before. He has been at university and has managed exams. For that matter, he should be able to manage education equally better. I am looking forward to bringing amendments to this particular Senate Bill to move early childhood education system into the normal education system and look at the Constitution to ensure that we harmonise education. I am aware that this was an administrative decision, which could have been wrong or unconstitutional and which did not bring equality in education. Therefore, while I support the Bill, I am looking forward to further amendments at the Committee of the whole House. I beg to support."
}