ACCRA, Oct 26 (The African Portal) – Ghana’s Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, has dismissed growing public calls for senior high schools (SHS) to allow students to keep long hair, even when it is natural.
Speaking at the 75th anniversary of Mawuli Senior High School in the Volta Region on Saturday, Iddrisu said the government would not permit such a change in policy.
“The education authorities will not tolerate long hair today or tomorrow,” he said. “If we give in to hair today, tomorrow it will be shoes, and the next day it will be the way students dress. Schools are not beauty contest grounds.”
His comments come amid renewed public debate over school hair policies after a viral video showed a female first-year student at Yaa Asantewaa Senior High School in Kumasi crying as her mother took her to a barber shop to cut her long natural hair ahead of reporting to school.
The video, which showed the girl wearing her school uniform as the barber filmed the process, sparked widespread discussion on social media and radio stations.
The incident has drawn comparisons to a similar controversy in 2021, when Achimota School in Accra came under scrutiny for denying admission to students with dreadlocks, a case that triggered a national debate on students’ rights and school regulations.
Addressing the Mawuli School event, which was attended by the Director General of the Ghana Education Service, Mr Iddrisu said headteachers and school authorities were empowered to enforce discipline on their campuses.
“Anyone who thinks their child can walk into a learning institution as if it were a beauty contest should understand that the school environment is not designed for that purpose,” he said.
The minister’s remarks have further fuelled the ongoing debate over grooming and discipline in Ghana’s secondary schools.
