Community learning plan stopped

The High Court Tuesday stopped government plans to roll out community-based learning, a programme that is meant to engage learners during the current period of Covid-19 pandemic.

The Ministry of Education in conjunction with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and the Ministry of Interior intended to roll out the programme by engaging learners, with a view to equipping them with basic knowledge related to the pandemic and other practical skills, in the duration the schools remain closed.

Learners were to be taught under trees, open places and large social halls in their localities and TSC who have already enrolled in thousands, will work with community leaders and administrators.

But Justice James Makau put on hold the programme after Joseph Enock Aura, a parent accused the ministry and TSC of failing to subject it to public participation.

Mr Aura, a father of three learners, moved to court arguing that the indefinite closure of schools was affecting children, yet the government has failed to put in place measures to address the issue, since the institutions were closed in March. He wants the court to compel the government to reopen schools on September 1.

“The open-ended closure of schools in Kenya from March 16th, 2020 to date is not a solution to a little known public health issue classified as "Covid-19’, and whose mortality rate is not certifiable to date,” the petition stated.

He said through lawyer Harrison Kinyanjui that by subjecting the children to such prolonged closures, there has been “severity of pain and suffering” on the pupils and students, especially those who are to write their final examinations at the end of the year.

Mr Aura accused Education CS Prof George Magoha and his Health counterpart Mutahi Kagwe of “repeatedly exhibiting reckless indifference” to the possibility of causing pain and suffering on the students and pupils, citing non-existing consultations with stakeholders.

“There is escalation of teenage pregnancies, exposure to pornography due to lack of online filters, and delinquency among children who now have no parental care during daytime, months on end after the closure. It is clear now that it’s more dangerous keeping students and learners at home idle than in schools, inasmuch as an idle mind is the devil’s workshop,” he said in an affidavit.