They claim the country will never be ready in the prevailing economic and social conditions.
BY NT CORRESPONDENT.
Parents seeking the reopening of schools have condemned the condescending attitude exhibited by Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha saying it amounted to punishing innocent children.
While addressing the media during the launch a website to mobilise parents to join a case in court, lawyer Harrison Kinyanjui said their greatest displeasure is the shifting of position by the Ministry on the reopening of schools.
“Something is terribly wrong with our bureaucrats. This irritional shut down of schools constitutes punishment to Kenya’s school-enrolled children and learners. Open Kenya schools. That is what this website is about,” the parents lamented.
They reminded CS Magoha that by operation of statute, he bears the responsibility of ensuring the realization of the right to education across the country
The parents also told the CS that Parliament has conferred upon him the obligation to implement the right to education enshrined in Article 43(1)(f) of the constitution and he cannot squirm out of this responsibility nor can he shift his mandate to the health cabinet secretary.
“He does not enjoy that luxury and cannot invoke pseudo – science and wholly illogical and unsupportable theories to the continued open-ended closure of schools,” Kinyanjui said.
They said there was no need of “special” desks for schools to resume as the same was not applied in Tanzania, Sweden or Netherlands which have treated “Covid-19” as a health condition but not inhibitory one.
“Let us face it. Our education institutions across the board will never be ready against Covid-19 in the prevailing economic and social conditions. We have had our children out and about with absolutely no mass “infection” of these children and it is about time we resumed normal in-person learning,” added the parents in their statement.
They said that they believed that the shifting ping-pong utterances of the reopening of schooling attributable to the ministry of education are a gross violation of Article 43(1)(f) and Article 53(1)(b).
The parents have launched the website to express themselves against the impression created by the ministry of education that learners, parents, teachers, tutors, education institutions operator’s and entire gamut of stakeholders are in agreement with the dark and hazy position taken by the ministry.
They also said the Ministry of Education appears hell-bent on avoiding in-person learning and instead has turned to irritionally imposed “community based learning”.
But they reminded th CS that he bears the responsibility for the overall governance and management of basic education in the country.
They said schools in Sweden, Tanzania, Netherlands, Ivory coast, Taiwan among others are now running in spite Covid-19 while schools in Kenya remain shut.
