Court Orders Ministry of Education to Establish Quality Assurance Council.
The High Court directed the Ministry of Education to establish the Education Standards and Quality Assurance Council (ESQAC) within 60 days.
Justice Lawrence Mugambi ordered on Monday that the ministry should designate relevant officers to the council, as required by Section 64 of the Basic Education Act.
The judge stated that the ministry’s failure to form the council in accordance with the Act was an affront to the rule of law and governance principles.
“To allow the Executive (Ministry) to act as it wishes in the circumstances will be to diminish the authority law and to that extent that of Parliament against the Constitutional doctrine of separation of powers,” the tribunal’s ruling stated.
Justice Mugambi rejected the ministry’s contention that Dr. Christopher Galgalo Ali, who submitted the lawsuit, failed to demonstrate how educational standards have dropped as a result of the ESQAC’s non-establishment.
The court rejected the claim, stating that the main issue was the arbitrary refusal to apply an unambiguous statutory obligation over which it had no control.
The judge stated that denying the children access to this structure would deprive them of the benefit of receiving quality education, which is the primary objective behind the provision in the Basic Education Act, aimed at maintaining high standards of education.
Dr. Ali, a former head of the council, filed a lawsuit in 2022, alleging that the ministry violated Sections 64 and 65 of the Basic Education Act.
He cited the failure to carry out the statutory intention of a functioning and operational council, as required by law.
Dr. Ali stated that the prolonged non-operationalization of the ESQAC and the non-appointment of quality assurance officials equate to psychological agony for teachers and pupils, particularly with the implementation of the Competence Based Curriculum (CBC).
He informed the court that the Department of Education received Sh40 million per year to fund the council’s operations, but none had been constituted as of yet.
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He stated that he had addressed multiple correspondences to the ministry but received no answer or indication of when it would be established.
According to Justice Mugambi’s opinion, the government’s conscious failure to appoint the council in violation of an express statutory mandate enables the court to review its inactivity.
The judge stated that in any event, a deliberate failure to enforce a specific statutory provision, whose objective is clear, amounts to undermining the achievement of the stated purpose, to the detriment of the public.
Court Orders Ministry of Education to Establish Quality Assurance Council.
