Minister Warns SHS Students: No Hairstyles, No Long Hair

The Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu has put an end to the debate on whether or not Senior High School (SHS) students in government and government-assisted schools should be allowed to keep long hairs or to style their hairs in whatever ways they deem fit even if the hairstyles do not conform to school regulations.

Speaking over the weekend at the 75th Anniversary celebrations of Mawuli School, in the Volta Region, Haruna Iddrisu said schools in Ghana are not avenues for beauty contests where students should be allowed to keep lay hairstyles they so wish.

The Education Minister directed school heads and the Ghana Education Service (GES) to stick strictly to the laid down regulations of discipline and conformity to uniformity in how students should appear in school.

Haruna Iddrisu, during his official address noted: “There is an ongoing debate on social media about haircuts and size and length of hair in secondary schools. We would not tolerate it today, we would not tolerate it tomorrow, and so long as we are molding character, if we give it to hair today, tomorrow it would be shoes.  And the next day it would be the way they dress.

“Therefore, as part of our disciplinary measures, headmasters and the GES, you are accordingly empowered to take full control of how students behave on your campuses. So anybody who thinks that your child would walk into any institution of learning as if that child, forgive my words, was to attend a beauty contest, the school environment is not for that purpose and was not carved for that purpose and we would not tolerate that as an institution”, the Minister added.

The Education Minister also spoke about the need for teachers to conduct themselves with discipline and within the GES regulations else they would be dealt with according to law if they are found to be guilty of flouting the rules of engagement.

“There is a lot of growing indiscipline in our schools.  Some even with teachers abusing learners.  We would not accept that. We would apply heavy sanctions to any teacher who wants to take advantage of a learner”, Haruna Iddrisu stated.