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{
    "id": 951288,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/951288/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 245,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Tinderet, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Julius Melly",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 12849,
        "legal_name": "Julius Kipbiwot Melly",
        "slug": "julius-kipbiwot-melly"
    },
    "content": "(2) A child in an education centre shall not be subject to emotional or psychological abuse. A few weeks ago, I stood before this House to issue a statement on a child who passed on. It was alleged that she was abused by a teacher. She was stigmatised and traumatised and she committed suicide. The Bill intends to ask head-teachers, teachers and handlers at the ECD centres not to subject learners to corporal punishment because it is illegal and a psychological abuse to the young ones. It is bound to injure them. A person who contravenes subsection (1) commits an offence and is liable, on conviction, to a fine not exceeding Kshs500,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years, or both. Part IX of the Bill provides for transitional provisions. It sets out a transition period of one year from the date of the enactment of the Act. These are consequential or transitional clauses that ensure the Bill is in tandem with the law. This Part also gives a transitional period of four years to persons previously employed as ECD teachers within which time they shall be required to obtain the necessary qualification for employment as ECD teachers under the new Act. This Bill is explicit on the standards of officers, specifically the teachers. The teacher is required to comply, to be examined, and to be registered by the TSC. Every County Executive Committee member, in the Bill, is mandated to ensure that all the officers under him or her meet these requirements. The Bill seeks to entrench standards. You will find that in some counties, teachers do not have a certificate or a degree. You cannot go to the streets to pick any one to be a teacher of your child. The Bill seeks to standardise this by making sure that the teacher is registered, has the requisite documents, skills and understanding. The ECD learning has to be done as per the law. In Part X, the Bill has miscellaneous provisions. It gives powers to the Cabinet Secretary to make regulations in consultation with the Council of Governors (CoGs). Additionally, the Cabinet Secretary shall, in consultation with the TSC and the CoGs, prescribe minimum standards relating to the schemes of service for ECD teachers within one year of enactment of the Bill. We deliberated, as a Committee, on the issue of employment of ECD teachers. This is a function of the county governments, but we shall debate it. Early Childhood Development teachers are paid in a variant way. Some county governments pay them Kshs8,000. I want to thank the Governor for Kisumu County who pays them Kshs12,000. That could be the highest in the country. So, if one county is paying them Ksh8,000, others Kshs10,000 and others as they deem fit, we can look at that issue in this Bill. We can propose amendments to ensure that if money has been taken to the county governments, it is brought back and these graduates are employed by the TSC for standardisation, motivation and recognition. These are the people who we bestow our children at a tender age to. How do you give your child to a demotivated person, say, a person who wakes up in the morning and does not take tea because their salary is not enough? It is incumbent upon us to look into this matter and ask ourselves: What are we doing about it? That is open for discussion. 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."
}