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"speaker_name": "Mr. Koech",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for us to move forward and prosper as a country, we must ensure that we fully invest in education, research and technology. This report touches on the highest institution of learning in our country, namely, Kenyatta University, where the top cream of the Kenyan academicians is. It is important that as we address the issues in our universities, to also think of the source of the students. The students in our universities originate from our secondary schools and before then, they were in primary schools. For us to have a society that values human resource, we must address the challenges that face our education sector right from the pre-unit level. We are debating this Report after listening to our able Minister for Education, quoting very clearly, the country is in a crisis. The country is in a crisis because of lack of enough teachers. We release funds to our schools very late to the extent that the curriculum is sincerely and seriously affected. I plead with the Government to seriously address the issues affecting our schools today. This country is also faced with serious cases of strikes and sometimes threats of strikes by university lectures and school teachers, mainly because of poor remuneration. We, as a Committee, recommend we, as a country, need to develop a scheme which is very clear that will always ensure that people are remunerated properly and at the appropriate levels, so that we do not become a country of threats. Something needs to be done. We would like the issue of strikes to be left behind us. Our students learn a lot from our teachers and our lecturers, especially through the hidden curriculum. We are also faced with issues of quality of education in our schools. We need to beef up, as a country, the Quality Assurance Departments both in the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology to ensure we provide quality education in our schools. Education is supposed to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor. It is this time that we seriously need to address the issues affecting our students in public schools, so that they can get an avenue of also being part of decision making in future. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Report before this House is touching on our universities. I want to impress upon all those who are charged with the responsibility of providing leadership in our universities across the country, not necessarily at Kenyatta University, to look at the recommendations and make maximum use of them, so that we can avert strikes. This report touches on the strikes that took place in Kenyatta University on 18th and 29th March, 2009. These two strikes were very destructive in the sense that the first one led to the loss of over Kshs15 million and the second one led to a loss of Kshs112 million in one single day. We also lost one student. On the onset, I want to thank the following institutions because they helped with information. They also provided recommendations on the way forward. These are the students of Kenyatta University, including the Kenyatta University Students Association (KUSA) officials, the lecturers, the chaplains, the UASU, the KUDHEA, the Senate, the Council, the parents and the sponsors of the students, the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology and the Ministry of State for Provincial Administration and Internal Security. On behalf of the Committee on Education, Research and Technology, I want to sincerely thank all of them for what they provided to us as a Committee that informed what we tabled before this House, which I want to plead with this House to pass, so that it can be of great help to the Ministry and the universities at large, in forging the way forward. The major causes of the two strikes in Kenyatta University revolve around the following. The first one is the issue of the registration deadline. As a way of managing the payment of fees, Kenyatta University gave a deadline to the students within which they were supposed to register. They were supposed to register by 2nd February, which gave them three weeks from the day of reporting to the university. Students were paying fees online and not directly to the university. The fees is paid from various sources, which include the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB), parents, well-wishers and some even from Members of Parliament who are also helping in harambees in order to help these students progress with their education. The request by the students was accepted by the university quite late, which was around 10th February and that only took care of those who had registered by 7th February, and some of the students who had already paid were not considered. It also came out very clear that within the same stipulated time, there were campaigns for elections for KUSA officials in Kenyatta University. As part of the campaign tool, the student leaders promised the students that once elected, they were going to request the administration to defer the deadline. We noted with great concern that the university administration did not deny that within the campaign period."
}