Learning is set to resume at Brookhouse International School after the High Court gave an injunction ordering the resumption of virtual classes for some classes pending the hearing and determination of a case filed by a section of parents over a school fees dispute.
Justice Weldon Korir gave the order allowing virtual classes to resume but only for pupils in Kindergarten up to Year 4, effectively allowing 313 pupils whose education had been disrupted by the tussle between the institution and parents to continue with their studies.
Brookhouse heaved a sigh of relief after the ruling after a week of negative publicity over the issue saying the injunction is a win-win for students, their parents and the institution.
“This is the proper outcome for the children as so many parents had written to us asking that virtual learning continue to be provided,” Rabih Saab, on Behalf of the Board said in a letter to the parents Wednesday.
However, parents will be required to foot 50% of the school fees as stipulated by the court by Monday, May 18 pending the hearing and determination of the matter regardless of whether the pupils access virtual learning or not.
The court had ordered the school to lower school fees by 50% and to suspend learning for Early Years to Year 4 pending the determination of the matter.
The focus now shifts to the court case penciled in for May 13 where Brookhouse will be hoping that the court rules in its favour after refusing to cede ground on school fees discounts offered to parents.
A section of parents under the Brookhouse Parents Association (BPA) banner had moved to court on April 30 and successfully secured an injunction ordering the institution to lower its school fees by half as parents lamented the schools ‘insensitivity’ due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus Pandemic that has affected the income-generating streams of virtually everyone in the world.
The parents’ decision to seek legal redress attracted the ire of Nadim Nsouli, the Chairman of the Imperial Education Group (IEG), the consortium that owns Brookhouse who charged that parents aggrieved by the school’s decision to offer a 10% discount should take their children and enroll them into other institutions.
Nsouli via a virtual meeting with the Association’s legal team scoffed at the opposite number’s demands for school fees to be lowered terming the proposal unreasonable maintaining that his company stands to make losses on a $25 million investment pumped into the institution to make it “the best in Africa”.
What followed was cracks started emerging between parents who split into two camps.
One camp was the one represented by the Brookhouse Parents Association protesting the school’s refusal to lower its demands while the other camp distanced itself from BPA, the High Court suit and wanted to join the school in its case protesting the school fees cut imposed by the court.
The latter group of parents also wanted learning to resume at the earliest opportunity possible.
