The Ministry of Education is in the news again. This time it is not about a mother tongue brouhaha but something else.
We do not want to believe that crew cut as in the security services is perhaps what the Education Ministry is seeking for our female Senior High School freshers. Perhaps in-school barbers will be engaged to do the job.
The subject has attracted public outrage with a Muslim leader describing it as a breach of the Islamic faith as far as girls are concerned.
In the 60s haircut styles were in vogue and perhaps in those in their seventies will recall the afro hair styles, the Tokyo Joes, Ebony and others…the oldies should be reminiscing those past years and smiling.
We cannot run away from the fact of brewing instances of indiscipline in schools and the need to adopt measures to restore discipline in the educational system.
We commend the Education Ministry for thinking about restoring discipline in the school system anyway but the female haircut route is not the way.
Of course there are many layers of indiscipline among students as evident in the manner in which students dress…shirts untucked, uncombed hair among others.
Is the matter under review another instance of announcing a policy before Cabinet deliberation? We hope not.
This issue is a reintroduction of a controversy which rocked the country in 2021 when the authorities of Achimota Senior High School and parents of two Rastafarian students locked horns over whether or not their dreadlocks should be cut in conformity with school rules.
The issue maintained the lead on the public conversations chart for a long time until the matter was resolved through court.
With many challenges in the subject sector demanding attention and action we do not think this is the time for a triviality like female students haircut.
Better options of simplifying senior high school placements and stopping the collection of pre-admission unauthorized levies should be what Ghanaians want to hear about.
While parents of the two students insisted that the dreadlocks are part of their faith the school authorities said dreadlocks did not conform with the regulations of the school.
It will be recalled that at a meeting with the management of the Ghana Education Service (GES), the headmistress of the school, Mrs Majorie Affenyi, and the parents of one of the students in Accra said the decision was for them to cut their dreadlocks in conformity with the school’s rules, demand which father of one of the two students disagreed and threatening to go to court.
We are likely under the circumstances to run into a similar minefield when some parents because of their faith would not agree to their daughters cutting their hair as being proposed by the Education Ministry.
It was such a controversial issue that the Ghana Education Service stepped in with a directive that the two Rastafarian students be admitted with their dreadlocks order which old Achimotans (AKORAS) as well as the National Association Of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) disagreed with.
What if female Muslim girls demand to use the hijab in conformity with their faith in a secular ambience?
