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{
    "id": 953520,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/953520/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 269,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba North, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Odhiambo-Mabona",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 376,
        "legal_name": "Millie Grace Akoth Odhiambo Mabona",
        "slug": "millie-odhiambo-mabona"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this time. Let me take this opportunity to apologise to Madam Speaker before she leaves for giving her a hard time earlier on. I did not intend to, but being a person who is keen on justice, I believe that even when the majority have their way, the minority must have their say. That is all I wanted to say. I wanted to raise a procedural issue which I was not given a chance to. I will get a chance to raise it at a later date. I support this Sessional Paper. One of the things it seeks to do is realign education to the Constitution, especially on the issue of equality and equity. Because of the short time, I will just raise a few issues. First, we must look at the issue of the medium of instruction in schools. The Government policy still provides that the medium of instruction in peri-urban areas is mother tongue. How do you teach a child in mother tongue and expect them to compete in English with children who have been speaking in English all their lives? Secondly, the Hon. Member for Dagoretti has raised the issue of the CBC. I have been looking at some of the homework that children bring home. I do see that they are asked to print some work. Who will be printing work in Suba North, Remba Island or Mfangano Island? Where will they be printing it? Let us be realistic. We should bring the policy here to this House before we implement it. Some of the things that we do may be very wonderful, if implemented in the United States of America (USA), but may not be realistic for Kenya at this point. The other issue that I wanted to talk about is that a lot of people are increasingly saying that we no longer have an issue of girl-child education because we are now at par. That is far from the truth. Looking at most schools in the country - except perhaps those from around Central Kenya - gender parity is still a mirage. In places like my constituency, you will find that at entry point, the number of girls is very high. Transition rates become very low and completion rates are even much lower. Therefore, one of the things that we need to do is ensure that we increase the number of girls that are not only joining, but transiting and finishing school. I also want to talk to the issue of equity in terms of resource allocation. Currently, under the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) Act, all of us get equal funds. Sometimes you hear members of the public challenging us on why we cannot build a school like so-and-so has done, especially Members who have town constituencies. You find one town constituency only has five or 10 schools. Most rural constituencies have over 300 schools. How do you compare 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."
}