A senior education officer from America who claims he was unlawfully sacked by Government has been given permission to seek a judicial review of the decision.

Dr. Craig Nikolai, who headed the research, measurement and evaluation team at the Ministry of Education (MOE), was told in a letter last September that he had been fired on the recommendation of former acting permanent secretary Alberta Dyer-Tucker.

His lawyer Paul Harshaw will argue in court that the process leading up to his sacking was unlawful. Mr. Harshaw told The Royal Gazette this week: "Dr. Nikolai has been granted leave to issue judicial review proceedings.

"Given that the matter is now firmly before the court, it would be wrong of me to attempt to try the matter in the press."

Dr. Nikolai was given five days to leave the Island at the start of the year by the Department of Immigration, after the Ministry of Education reported that he no longer had a job.

Dr. Nikolai applied for permission to stay longer but it is not known if he was allowed.

Mr. Harshaw would not comment on whether he was still on the Island and the Department of Immigration did not respond to a request for comment.

Dr. Nikolai, who is understood to be in his early 40s, wants the Supreme Court to declare that he was never lawfully terminated from his job.

He had worked at the Ministry for about two years and was in charge of Terra Nova testing in public schools.

A date for the case to be heard has yet to be set.