The debate about dreadlocks in Ghana’s secondary schools is raging, with no end in sight.
This comes following the refusal of one of the country’s category A schools; Achimota Secondary School, to admit some two students with dreadlocks into the school.
Their defense, among other things, was that the prospective students’ lifestyle did not conform to the school’s rules.
The Ghana Education Service (GES) on Friday ordered the school to admit the said students but the school, after a meeting with the Regional Director of Education on Monday maintained its stance to only admit the students if they take off the dreadlocks.
The issue has since been raging on social media platforms like Twitter where concerns have been raised about the legitimacy of the school’s stance.
The question which has mostly been raised is whether or not this is an infringement of the basic rights of the dismissed students, and if the subject of qualification and abilities shouldn’t be prioritized over their lifestyle and in this case, their hair.
A new angle to the subject is why Rastafarians who are Africans are denied admission based on their dreadlocks which is part of their culture and religion whilst students from European countries are admitted into the school, without these same rules.
Here are a few of the notions that are being postulated by some Tweeps since the emergence of the issue:
