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"speaker_name": "Mr. Kizito",
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"legal_name": "Justus Kizito Mugali",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. First of all, I want to congratulate the Mover of this Motion. This is a very important Motion and long overdue because it concerns our universities. I would like to confirm to this House that I am also an educationist and I have been at the university. I would like to say that parallel programmes do not compromise educational standards in this country. I want that to be very clear. I want to put it to my colleagues who said that there are people from the university who cannot write letters that people have their own individual differences in terms of weaknesses. At the university, socialization and training is found there in terms of theories and some practical aspects. However, the real training of a professional is found in the field where they go to work and train and get experience to become much better. So, it is not very good for us to crucify parallel students and say that they have compromised standards because of that kind of effort. I support this Motion and commend the Government and the university authorities for having thought about this. There is need for us to re-examine our universities in terms of parallel and regular programmes. I want all of us to agree that all these students are our children. There are many parameters or factors that contribute to a student performing well or not. Therefore, it is not fit for us to think that somebody who achieved or obtained a C (plus) in a hardship area or endured some other hardship may not perform well as a doctor. I want to confirm to this House that the fact that those who go for medicine attain very high level of grades, it is simply because of limited space at the university level. That is why they take few and they have to go by the criteria of taking those who have the highest grade. That notion must be minimized, so that we can look at our students who are in parallel programmes as human beings and allow them to have confidence. One thing I would like to request, and I am happy that the Minister is here, is that we find a way of doing away with the name âparallel programmeâ and get another name for it. We need to regularize and standardize the modes of education and fee payment, so that the total cost used to educate a student in a public university in what we call the regular student, the entire cost plus the subsidy is put together and the students under the parallel programme are asked to pay the same amount, so that we have more of them accessing education. I want to look at the political background in terms of the backlog of students who qualify for university, but do not get opportunities. Much of it is related to ourselves as the Government of Kenya which did not expand the university space. For example, each and every year, we have over 350,000 students sitting for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations. Out of this, our universities take slightly above 10,000, leaving about a whole 340,000 out there. For me, it was a good idea to introduce the idea of parallel programme, so that we have many of our people who will not have got these opportunities and they have the ability to pay for their fees to come to the universities and get their degrees and pick their correct positions in national development. One major problem is that most of our universities could have more space for the regular programmes, but I think that most of the spaces have been taken by students studying lower certificates like diplomas. Universities should leave the training of those lower certificates to the middle-level colleges. They should offer degrees and other grades upwards, so we have room and space for those who qualify for university. I understand that our universities are trying to expand and they have expanded so much because of a lot of money which was collected through the parallel degree programme students. The facilities are okay now. Most of the universities have the facilities to take more students. In this regard, universities which have grown should find a way of cutting down the cost of educating a parallel degree programme student, so that we have many students accessing university education. I want to observe that the parallel programme has increased the number of people who hold degrees in this country. There are those who attain the parallel degrees and Masterâs degree. They end up becoming professors and yet, they are people who would have been âwastedâ like that. I would like to urge the Ministry of Education to increase and expand the capacity of the HELB, so that loans can be extended to students who have low qualifications from grade C (plus) and above, so that we can do away with the word âparallelâ, so that it does not segregate them. I have heard someone say that because someone went through the parallel programme, when they come to work in an institution, they are already stigmatized. They are not accepted to a level that they can also deliver. This is a matter of attitude. In order for us to kill this attitude, why can we not give all these people the opportunity to access universities, so that those who can pay fees, do so? Even if others got grade âAâ and their parents can manage to pay fees for them, let the parents do so. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, HELB should expand its capacity, so that it can identify the needy students. It should give loans and bursaries to only the needy students at the university without segregating our people and saying that a student who obtains grade âAâ, even if they come from rich backgrounds, the Government has to give them loans and bursaries. We need to find a way of helping our students in the parallel programme, so that they can be accepted in this nation. If we committed a mistake by segregating them, the Ministry needs to move very fast and regularize this, so that these students can be accepted. There should be no disparity and attitudes advanced against them when they go to the labour market. By so doing, we are also going to kill some of our institutions because they are not going to be accepted like it has already been said. Let us look at them as students. Those who can afford the fees, should go for it. The Ministry should also not expand universities at the expense of the middle level colleges. Many teacher training colleges have been upgraded to universities. Where will the students who attain grade âCâ and below go to? Where will those who attain grade C (plus), but would just like to go for a Diploma in Education go to? They have nowhere to go because most of these middle-level colleges have been made universities. This is creating a lot of pressure to university colleges. With those few remarks, I support this Motion."
}