Summary
- The High Court has rejected a petition by parents of Crawford International School to compel the government to prepare and submit to the National Assembly a Bill to cap private school fees.
- The parents pushed for Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha and Attorney-General Kihara Kariuki to develop the regulations that would also affect institutions offering international curriculum in Kenya.
- But Justice Weldon Korir said private schools do not receive taxpayer money and are free to charge fees based on markets forces of demand and supply
The High Court has rejected a petition by parents of Crawford
International School to compel the government to prepare and submit to
the National Assembly a Bill to cap private school fees.
The
parents pushed for Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha and
Attorney-General Kihara Kariuki to develop the regulations that would
also affect institutions offering international curriculum in Kenya.
But
Justice Weldon Korir said private schools do not receive taxpayer money
and are free to charge fees based on markets forces of demand and
supply
“The onus of determining whether fees for
private schools should be capped is an issue for the Executive and
Parliament. Those who want levies payable in private schools to be
capped should lobby Parliament to pass the necessary law,” said Justice
Korir.
The court observed that the implications of such a law are significant and requires more than a judges’ decision.
The push emerged in a period when parents, mostly from high-end
schools, have sued schools to cut fees charged for online classes in the
wake of coronavirus outbreak that has led to closure of institutions.
Parents hit by job and pay cuts as well as unpaid leave following the pandemic have been struggling to settle the fees.
“Although
I do not agree with the suggestion by the CS and the Attorney-General
that this court has no authority to direct the Executive on policy
formulation, I find that in this particular case the petitioners have
not convinced this court that it should issue an order directing the CS
and the AG to formulate such a Bill,” said the judge.
He
noted that although free and basic education is indeed an important
constitutional right, the responsibility of discharging that mandate
rests on the State and not private entities.
In 2011,
Kenya enacted a law that allowed the country to return to price controls
of any essential commodity, after the practice was abandoned in the
1990s in favour of economic liberalisation.
Under the
law, Treasury secretary through the Kenya Gazette can declare any goods
to be essential commodities and determine the maximum prices of the
goods in consultation with industry players.
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