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{
    "id": 95129,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/95129/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 202,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Prof. Kamar",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 33,
        "legal_name": "Margaret Jepkoech Kamar",
        "slug": "margaret-kamar"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, who is a parallel student? I happen to have been in the university system for over 20 years before I came to this House. When the parallel degree programme started, I was in the university. I want to confirm to this House that it was a very genuine and honest gesture to allow more Kenyans to access university education. So, that in itself was very positive. That was reciprocated by parents who were able to raise the funding and education of our students has expanded as a result of that. You will realise that Kenya has produced more human resource than any other country in the region. I just came from an ACP-EU meeting in Seychelles and I was proud to meet Kenyan teachers there. In fact, secondary schools in Seychelles are staffed by Kenyans than any other, than even Seychellois themselves. So, we have had a very positive impact on this. I am not also worried about money being raised because universities were already getting dilapidated. I want to confirm that universities have improved their facilities because of the parallel degree programmes. We had a lot of stalled buildings in Egerton University and Moi University. But now that is a thing of the past. Moi University has been able to even buy properties here in Nairobi because of the same programme. So, it is possible that we do not know in this House how much has been done using the parallel programme money. I know the University of Nairobi has done wonders with money that they have raised. So, I do support that the money they have raised has been utilized properly. The Ministry can analyse and give us, at a later stage, exactly what has been done so that some of these questions can be put to rest. But my main query is: Who is a parallel student? The parallel student that we are talking about is a student who got Grade “C” and above and has not reached that critical mark that allows them to come through the regular programme. The admission of a regular student is such that the Joint Admissions Board takes the top students from number one to whatever the numbers are. Our numbers have been pegged on bed space for many years. So, we were actually recruiting students based on bed space in the universities."
}