Education CS has 14 days to put together an education standards team.
High Court Judge Lawrence Mugambi said on Tuesday that not having the Education and Quality Assurance Council (ESQAC) board in place was wrong and a breach of duty, even though the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) had already been put in place.
The judge thought the CS couldn’t explain why the important group hadn’t been chosen yet.
Court Judge Mugambi gave the Migos 14 days to follow the rules set by the court.
“The law did not let the respondents choose not to act or wait.” In this situation, letting the government or respondents delay would weaken the law’s power. “It would mean denying children the benefit of high standards for education, which is what the standards are meant to do,” Justice Mugambi said.
Dr. Chris Galgalo, who used to be chair of the Education and Quality Assurance Council (ESQAC), filed the case. He said that the program was put in place without tests in it.
He said that there are no checks and balances in the school system for how kids are learning.
Harrison Kinyanjui, Dr. Galgalo’s lawyer, said that just having access to education isn’t enough; the government should also make sure that students have good teachers and learning tools.
Kinyanjui said, “This lack of quality assurance leads to an endless curriculum learning free fall, especially for those who now have to deal with a new CBC program that hasn’t been tested.”
Court papers shown to a High Court judge say that Dr. Galgalo was chosen by former minister Pro. Jacob Kaimenyi to lead SQAC in 2019. In 2023, his time should be over.
He said that the selection had been told to the Principal Secretary for Basic and Early Learning.
The judge was told that the meeting has not been changed or canceled yet.
He said, though, that he held an office that wasn’t working. Dr. Galgalo also said that he wrote to the late CS Prof. George Magoha to ask for his help and to talk about the future of the agency, but he has never heard back.
His lawyer, Kinyanjui, told the court that he then wrote to Dr. Joseph Kinyua, who used to be the head of public service, about the same thing but still didn’t hear back.
“The first respondent (Magoha) has unlawfully failed to carry out the statutory intention of an operational and functional ESQAC in Kenya, which is bad for Kenyans and the petitioner in particular because it goes against what he had a right to expect,” Kinyanjui said.
He said that the Department of Education gets more than Sh40 million a year to make sure that basic education is of good quality. He did say, though, that the quality of education has been quickly declining.
“There is a very real chance that the quality of education in Kenya will drop to an absolutely horrible level if the quality assurance council doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do.” “The actions and omissions of the first respondent pleaded herein violate the petitioner and the affected Kenyan children’s right to human dignity,” Galgalo said.
He said that putting kids through an education system that doesn’t check for quality makes their time in school pointless. When it comes to the Kenyan school certificate, he said that the CS should be made to make the appointments.
“Early learners have the right to a good education, not just the right to go to school, which is in line with their right to dignity.” Every child has the right to go to school.
“But not just education, good education, which is what the law says should be overseen by ESQAC and quality assurance officers,” Dr. Galgalo said.
He also said that the Sh 476 billion sum that the government sets aside for education could be used to run a quality assurance board.
“By the time students graduate from their school without any quality assurance, it is clear that the quality of their graduation credentials and the certificate that comes after will be called into question,” he said.
Dr. Galgalo had asked the court to make the CS put together a team to make sure that the schools were good.
Education CS has 14 days to put together an education standards team.
