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{
    "id": 99146,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/99146/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 399,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Dr. Mwiria",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Higher Education, Science and Technology",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 190,
        "legal_name": "Valerian Kilemi Mwiria",
        "slug": "kilemi-mwiria"
    },
    "content": "and quality and also accommodating those who are not able to pay as much for university education. So, it is important for us to address the issue of equity especially with regard to education. This is because education is very quickly becoming a preserve of the rich in this country. This is a time bomb that we must address. If you say that these degree programmes are filled by young people from certain backgrounds, that is very true. Indeed, 60 per cent to 70 per cent of the students doing Medicine and Engineering in this country come from less than 20 schools in this country. You can count them. There is Alliance, Mangu and so on. This is a big injustice and Parliament must address this matter. I have spoken about this matter for the last six years I have been in Parliament and since I was in the Ministry of Education. I think we need to confront this problem and say we cannot continue to disadvantage the majority of Kenyans the way we have been doing. We cannot continue seeing this happen. The issue of equity must, therefore, be addressed, but we must not exaggerate the problem by making it tribal rather than looking at it from a socio-economic perspective. When we look at equity, we must also look at how students are admitted from the various regions and type of schools. It is completely irresponsibly and unfair to say that from a day secondary school, say, in Marsabit – We are building too many day schools these days--- It is okay we are providing an opportunity. However, are we providing an opportunity for these young people to go to university and do degrees that are marketable? It is a serious problem. So, we also need to ask as we admit students into our universities, do we have to base, for example, admission to the study of Medicine or Law on Grade “A” for all schools irrespective of the type of school the student went to? We must become more complex in terms of our evaluation criteria to ensure that we take a count of the different backgrounds of our young people in terms of region, type of school and socio-economic background. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I agree that there is a problem in the academic staff remuneration. We should pay our professors more as we should pay our teachers. However, we also need to ask whether they are putting in much more with every increment in salary. I know there are many opportunities for us to improve in this regard. As a Government, what is being done, therefore, to solve some of these problems is that we are pushing for autonomy. That is why our universities are now more independent. It is very difficult for the Government to interfere in the management of universities. That is why there are Chancellors who have been appointed and they are not the President. In terms of competitive recruitment, universities advertise for senior positions. Unfortunately, the tribalism that we are talking about comes from the fact that sometimes when we advertise it is only members of those communities that apply to join those universities. I must also point out that during the ethnic clashes, we witnessed a very serious problem whereby, as we talk about the management of those institutions, there were ordinary support staff members who were telling students, who did not come from those communities, that, “this is not your university”. They were threatened just as the settlers and farmers were being threatened. This is a very serious problem. It is a fact. It happened and it just tells you how serious the problem is. Therefore, we need to do more in terms of how we recruit. Apart from just calling it competitive and leaving it open, I have personally recommended that---"
}