Brookhouse School parents have suffered a blow after the High Court dismissed a case in which they were seeking a 30 per cent discount on school fees following a shift to online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The parents moved to court in April this year challenging the decision by Brookhouse to charge full fees despite their children learning virtually.
Fees as indicated on the Brookhouse website range between Sh90,000 and Sh1.1 million a year depending on the grade.
Justice Weldon Korir on Thursday declined to reduce the fees, ruling that the court cannot order a reduction.
Judge Korir further ruled that the market dictates the cost of the product or service and it would be unjust for parents to demand a reduction of fees.
“Parents do have constitutional rights but this has to be balanced against rights of the school and investors,” the court ruled.
The judge also ordered Brookhouse to establish a Parents Teachers Association (PTA) within the next 120 days.
High-end private schools have been on the receiving end with reports of mass exit from the institutions as parents settle for middle-tier schools.
Insiders reveal that parents once willing to part way with up to Sh800,000 a term are going for schools that charge between Sh280,000 to Sh350,000 per term.
Schools began to shut down on March 15 and international and private institutions moved swiftly to launch online platforms to ensure continuity in teaching and learning.
Unlike the 8-4-4 education system, all these international systems will be beginning a new academic year in September 2020, virtually.
The education systems in the institutions vary from the British system popularly referred to IGCSE, to the American curriculum.
Also offered are the Swedish, French, German, Dutch, and Japanese curriculums.
With the extension of schools closure, the institutions have opted for a Plan B to avoid disruption.
But the cost of the highly touted virtual learning remains a ground for antagonism between the school and parents.
With hard economic times mixed with general disagreement on the fee charges, most parents are now settling for cheaper services presumed to be of the same quality.
One of the parents who sought anonymity told the Star that the problem is a lot of the people who send their children to these institutions fall in two categories:
The first is the self-paying lot who make up the majority of the institutions’ clients. “They are the business people who have lost madly in the last six months,” said the parent.
“The people who are staying put have kids in their final 2/3 years but the middle school and early years have been greatly affected with the majority of parents seek less expensive options,” the parent said.
The second, are those getting an educational package as part of their work deal. Similarly, most of such organisations have cut benefits rather than cut the salaries of these people.
For those enrolled in the British curricula, the school calendar runs between September to Mid December for term one.