Education CS ordered to appoint education quality team in 14 days

Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos has been ordered to appoint a team to oversee the country's education quality.

In his judgment on Tuesday, High Court Judge Lawrence Mugambi said that it was unfair and a dereliction of duty not to have the Education and Quality Assurance Council (ESQAC) board in place despite rolling out the Competency Bases Curriculum (CBC).

The Judge was of the view that the CS could not explain why the crucial body had not been appointed yet.

Justice Mugambi gave the Migos 14 days to comply with the court orders.

“The law did not give the respondents the latitude not to act or delay. To allow the executive or respondents to delay in the circumstances is to diminish the authority of the law. It would be denying children the benefit of quality education standards, which is the objective behind the standards,” said Justice Mugambi.

The case was filed by former Education and Quality Assurance Council (ESQAC) chair Dr. Chris Galgalo. In it, he argued that the curriculum was rolled out without testing.

He asserted that children are learning without checks and balances of the education system.

Dr. Galgalo’s lawyer, Harrison Kinyanjui, argued that access to education is not enough; the government ought to ensure that learners have quality teachers and educational materials.

“This lack of quality assurance in turn creates and endless curriculum learning free fall, especially those who are now faces with a new untested CBC program,” said Kinyanjui.

According to court documents filed before High Court judge, Dr. Galgalo was appointed by former minister Pro. Jacob Kaimenyi to head SQAC in 2019. His term ought to end in 2023.

He claimed that the appointment was communicated to the Principal Secretary for early learning and basic education.

The judge heard that the appointment has not been varied or revoked to date.

However, he argued that he held an office that was not operational. Dr. Galgalo further claimed that he wrote to the late CS Prof. George Magoha seeking his intervention and chatting about the agency's future but has never received a response.

His lawyer, Kinyanjui, told the court that he then wrote to the former head of public service, Dr. Joseph Kinyua, on the same, but again, he did not receive a response.

“The first respondent (Magoha) has unlawfully failed to give effect to the statutory intendment of an operational and functional ESQAC in Kenya to the detriment to not only Kenyans, but the petitioner as well and in particular in breach of his legitimate expectation,” stated Kinyanjui.

He claimed that the Department of Education receives more than Sh40 million annually for quality assurance in basic education. However, according to him, the quality of education has been rapidly declining.

“There is, therefore, a precipitous danger of the quality of education in Kenya dropping to an extremely horrendous level without the quality assurance council meeting the foregoing mandate. The first respondent’s actions and omissions pleaded herein constitute a violation of the petitioner and the affected Kenyan children’s right to human dignity,” argued Galgalo.

He said subjecting children to an education system without quality assurance renders their years in class nil. He said that the CS should be forced to make the appointments for the Kenyan school certificate to be competitive.

“Early learner is entitled to quality education, not merely access to education which accords with right to dignity. All children are entitled to access education. But not merely education but quality education which by law is envisaged to be overseen by ESQAC and quality assurance officers,” said Dr. Galgalo.

He also said that a quality assurance council could be run from the Sh 476 billion basic education fund that the government sets aside for education.

 “By the time learners graduate from their learning institution without any form of quality assurance, it is clear that the quality of their graduation credentials will be put into question and the consequent certificate,” he said.

Dr. Galgalo had asked the court to force the CS to appoint a team to ensure quality education.