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{
    "id": 95139,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/95139/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 212,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Kathuri",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 38,
        "legal_name": "Emilio Mureithi Kathuri",
        "slug": "emilio-kathuri"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also rise to support this Motion reluctantly. If you look at the scenario in Kenya, you will find that when NARC came into power it provided free primary and secondary education. Basically, that was done because of children from poor families. At the moment, there is massive enrolment in our day secondary schools. These are students who had scored very high marks and were admitted to provincial schools, but their parents opted that they join day schools. The simple reason for that was that they could not afford school fees charged by the boarding schools. When these students do their exams, they pass, for example, with a mean grade B- (Minus) or C+ (Plus) despite the hardship they encounter in those schools. At the end of the day, they are not admitted to a public university. If you look at the other students who went through boarding private secondary schools, you will find that the children there even after scoring a mean grade of C+ or grade C end up at the university securing the space that would otherwise be occupied by that student who did his examination in a day secondary school. If we want to be sincere to Kenyans, it is only fair that we recognise that a student who scores a mean grade “B” in a day school is definitely better than the one who scores the same mean grade in a boarding school if you compare the hardship the two have encountered. The kid who scores a mean grade “B” in a boarding school will go to the university if he comes from a rich family while the one from a poor family with the same grade will never go to the university. As much as we would like to look at Mean Grades B as being equal, it is also fair for us to realise that these parents cannot afford the parallel degree programme. We also have to agree that we need to offer academic opportunities to Kenyans as much as possible. However, if we also ignore our pertinent agenda of trying to uplift the standards of those who come from poor families, we will not go very far. The HELB is an agenda which must also be addressed if we think of balancing the cost. There is no way we can balance the cost through any other avenue. We can only address this problem through the HELB. Let it subsidise or supplement the funding for the university education of all those who are from poor families and Government sponsored schools. After that, it can address the issue of those who want to join university under the parallel degree programme. The Government should not entertain the idea of admitting into the university students if they have not scored what those who have been admitted under the regular program have scored. An example is in the field of medicine. Even as we speak, if you know that you are being attended to by a doctor who attained a mean grade “B”, you will feel psychologically threatened. That is why they are never graded. Even if they are graded, it is not known by the public that this doctor scored a Second Class, Lower Division or Upper Division or a First Class Honours. That is only in the books and not mentioned to the public. It is only fair that some of those courses should be reserved for a specific category of qualifications. If it is a mean grade A that is required, let it be so. Even if you come with your Kshs200,000 to join a course under the parallel degree programme, you should be denied a chance. As much as we would like everybody to be educated in Kenya, we must also safeguard the quality of the graduands. If we do not do that, we will comprise the services that will be rendered to Kenyans. Some of them are in careers which we cannot compromise, for example, medicine and engineering. If a building was constructed poorly by an incompetent civil engineer, we would get ourselves into many problems. It is, therefore, very important that we ensure that students who have an opportunity to join university do so. However, we should not deny those from poor families a chance of being sponsored fully by the Government. Those who want to join the parallel degree programme may do so, but after meeting the minimum qualifications so that we do not compromise on the quality of graduates."
}