Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare, has weighed in on the conversation calling for female Senior High School (SHS) students to wear their natural long hair on campus.
The debate was ignited from a recent video circulating on social media shows a first-year female student looking unhappy while having her hair cut in a barbershop as part of preparations to begin school.
Dressed in a Yaa Asantewaa Girls’ Senior High School uniform, she appeared visibly displeased as her long hair was trimmed.
Following the video, scores of Ghanaians have called on the government to scrap what they describe as a “barbaric” act, arguing that a student’s hair length does not determine academic success.
Others, however, believe that allowing students to wear long hair to school could distract them from their studies. However, Kofi Asare, speaking to the media on Sunday, October 26, noted that parents and students who are against the hairstyle policy can pursue legal redress. He argued that such a policy should not violate students’ personal rights or freedom of expression, although its motive is to instill discipline in schools.
“It’s not always about indiscipline or discipline. I align with the law, and I encourage anyone who feels unfairly treated to engage the law. Society grows and so should the law grow,” he said.
Kofi Asare noted that parents taking the matter to court would not be the first, as a precedent has already been set.
“Marhguy argued that maintaining his Rasta was linked to his belief in Rastafarianism. And that denying him admission based on Rasta meant that his rights to religion and culture were being impugned on account of the school regulations…It was necessary for him to be allowed to manifest his religion by wearing his hair, which he related directly to his belief in Rastafarianism, and the court upheld that.
He added, “The court simply said, yes, schools may set their rules for regulating dress codes, including hairstyles. But in setting those rules, they shouldn’t be inconsistent with their right to religion.
“In the Marhguy case, culture and religion erupted. Before, all of us believed that it was unconscionable for the Ghana Education Service to deny people admission based on their hairstyles. That was our position.
“Then, the Marhguy’s case came, and the court made a pronouncement, and so we all aligned with the law until there is a contrary pronouncement by the court.”
But speaking at the 75th anniversary celebration of Mawuli Senior High School in the Volta Region on Saturday, October 25, the Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu emphasized that the secondary school environment is not a place for beauty contests to entertain such practices.
“There is an ongoing debate about hair cuts, and size and length of hair in secondary schools.We will not tolerate it today or we will not tolerate it tomorrow, in so long as molding character.
“If we give in to hair today, tomorrow it will be shoes, and the next day it will be the way they [students] dress.Therefore, as part of our disciplinary measures, headmasters and GES, you are accordingly empowered to take full control of how students behave on your campuses.”
“So anybody who thinks that your child will walk into any institution of learning, as if that child, forgive my words, was to attend a beauty contest, the school environment will not for that purpose and not cut for that purpose and we will not tolerate that as an institution,” the minister stated.
This is not the first time such calls have surfaced. In 2021, a first-year student, Tyrone Iras Marhguy, who gained admission to Achimota School was denied enrollment because he refused to trim down his dreadlocks. The family of Tyrone Iras Marhguy won the case after the court ruled that rules in schools shouldn’t be inconsistent with students’ right to religion.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Education has instructed the Ghana Education Service (GES) to fully implement the use of mother tongue as a medium of communication in Ghanaian schools.
The Minister mentioned that the directive constitutes efforts to reform the education sector, while championing the use of local languages in teaching and learning.
Speaking at the launch of the Free Tertiary Education Programme for Persons Living with Disabilities, Mr. Iddrisu stressed that the directive will enhance comprehension and learning outcomes in basic schools.
“I am directing the DG of the GES and the GES that from today, teacher use of mother tongue instruction is now compulsory in all Ghanaian schools. The GES is to ensure strict enforcement of this…This is part of President Mahama’s reset agenda,” the Minister firmly stated.
The country celebrates Ghana throughout March every year to commemorate its Independence. The historian thinks that people’s enthusiasm for the celebration is depleting as the years pass.
He believes people’s interest is dwindling because most designers in recent times are adding foreign products to their designs.
The historian also indicated that opinion leaders can be blamed for the low interest of the people, as they have failed to insist on the involvement of local languages in the school curricula.
As to whether the late Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah would have maintained the country’s heritage if he were alive, Nana Osei-Bonsu said, “Who knows that he would have kept doing what he was doing because politicians are dictated to.”
However, Ghanaians are encouraged to project the culture globally by wearing locally made designs, eating Ghanaian food, and speaking the local languages among others, throughout the month of March.
