NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 24 — The High Court has dropped former Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha from a case challenging the implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
In directions issued on Wednesday, the court slotted the matter for hearing on February 15.
A suit filed in September 2021 by then Law Society of Kenya (LSK) President Nelson Havi listed the late Cabinet Secretary, who passed away in January 2023, as a respondent.
The urgent application sought conservatory orders against the further implementation of CBC spearheaded by Magoha at the time.
Havi and Esther Ang’awa, the lead petitioner, had asked the court to refer the matter to the Chief Justite to constitute an uneven bench of not less than five judges.
“The necessity to have a bench of not less than five to hear the matter is informed by the various serious questions raised in the petition including whether the Minister in charge of Education can alter the system of education through sessional papers and policy decisions instead of legislation,” Havi told Capital FM at the time.
“A reading of the Basic Education Act indicates that the system of education is codified in law and its only Parliament that can change that system of education,” Havi explained.
‘Basic structure altered’
Havi argued that the overhaul of the education system had resulted in the alteration of the basic structure of the country’s education system without necessary amendments to the Basic Education Act.
“The effect of this overhaul and replacement of the system and structure of basic education is to designate a primary school as a secondary school and obfuscate the dichotomy between these two components of the basic education structure necessary for transition from primary education to secondary education,” Havi stated.
Ang’awa who also filed an affidavit in support of the petition said the roll out of the new curriculum primarily on the basis of the Basic Educational Curriculum Framework of 2017 and the Sessional Paper 1 of 2019 on curriculum reform constituted a violation of the Basic Education Act and the Constitution.
The petitioner argued that actions by Prof Magoha, the Kenya Institute for Curriculum Development (KICD), the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) were unlawful and prejudicial to school-going children.
She argued the CBC framework infringed upon rights guaranteed under Chapter 4 of the Constitution, and protected in Articles 19, 21 24, 29, 33, 42, 43, 47, 53, 55, 69 and 70.
Ang’awa singled out the right to free and compulsory education as enshrined in Article 53 as a critical area the Ministry of Education had failed to consider in the roll out of CBC.
The petition set the stage for a titanic legal battle after Magoha affirmed the “CBC train [had] left the station.”
