The debate over hair in schools is about more than grooming; it’s about the unfinished work of decolonising education and redefining discipline for a new generation.
A video recently went viral of a teenage girl sobbing as her long locs were cut off to meet her school’s entry requirements.
The incident at Yaa Asantewaa Girls’ Senior High School, where all female students must keep their hair cropped short, sparked public outrage and renewed scrutiny of rules that have remained unchanged for decades.
It’s an issue that never truly disappears, only re-emerging every few years when a new story goes viral and reignites the debate.
Each time, we are forced to confront the same uncomfortable truth: our education system continues to cling to outdated notions of discipline and conformity, even as the world around us evolves.
This was not an isolated incident; it exposes a deeper issue within our schools, one where outdated ideas of discipline continue to masquerade as developmental virtue.
Some authorities have doubled down in the face of criticism, insisting that these rules are essential for building character and focus.
But these regulations are relics of another era, policies rooted more in control than care, and they do little to nurture the confidence, creativity, and curiosity that healthy learning environments require.
When Rules Become Relics
Across Ghana’s public schools, students are forced to confront rules that barely feel relevant to them, not least because they are rarely explained.
Among the most notorious are those governing “hair upkeep,” whose consequences fall most visibly on girls, for whom hair carries deep cultural, personal, and even spiritual significance.
What was once likely introduced as a matter of practicality has endured as a rigid tradition. Beneath these explanations lies something more complicated: a lingering colonial inheritance that equates control with respect and sameness with virtue.
There is no evidence that a student’s hairstyle determines their focus, diligence, or academic success.
Yet the insistence on conformity persists. In truth, such rules are a quiet form of moral policing dressed up as tradition, policies that flatten individuality, discourage self-expression, and, perhaps most concerningly, teach young people that obedience is a higher virtue than curiosity or confidence.
The recent video of the young girl has reignited this national conversation. It was a painful image, not only because of her distress, but because it revealed how deeply our thinking remains tethered to the past.
And like clockwork, the controversy is following a familiar pattern: public outrage, official defensiveness, and eventual silence.
Every few years, another story surfaces, forcing us to confront the same uncomfortable truth: that our education system continues to cling to outdated notions of discipline and decorum, even as the world around it changes.
The Cost of Control
In 2021, Tyrone Iras Marhguy, a brilliant Ghanaian student, was denied admission to Achimota School because he refused to cut his dreadlocks, an expression of his religious identity. It took a High Court ruling to affirm what should never have been in question: his right to education.
Tyrone’s story has since become a symbol of principle. He not only excelled academically, earning straight A’s in his final exams, but has been admitted to study Computer Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania on a full scholarship.
His success exposes the hollowness of the arguments that justified the form of control he had to endure.
In his own words, Tyrone reflected on the absurdity of the fears projected onto him:
“There is a beautiful caution from the house I live in, which says that keeping your hair can and will impair your learning, force you against authorities, and influence you into hard drugs till you fail. I kept my hair, and obviously, it’s failed me miserably! … It’s the ultimate ‘failure’: gaining admission to the University of Pennsylvania to study Computer Engineering on a fully awarded scholarship.”
He ends with a question that should haunt policymakers:
“But what has uniformity got to do with equality?”
Tyrone’s experience is not an anomaly; it is a mirror. It reflects an education system that is more concerned with enforcing sameness and equates control with virtue.
His story is proof that hair, like individuality itself, has never been the problem. The problem lies in a system still guided by the fear that freedom leads to disorder.
Education for the Future, Not the Past
The future is already here: it is global, it is digital, and diverse. Yet our policies remain rooted in the paranoia of the past. We fear that without strict uniformity, we’ll lose control. But what we’re really losing is relevance.
Education prepares young people to think critically, express themselves, and navigate a world that values diversity and innovation. We cannot raise creative problem-solvers by forcing them into conformity from the classroom to the hair salon.
The qualities that matter most in tomorrow’s leaders—empathy, curiosity, resilience, and respect, cannot be cultivated in an environment obsessed with appearance.
Countries around the world are rethinking outdated school policies. In the United States, the CROWN Act now prohibits discrimination based on natural hairstyles, recognising that such biases are both racial and cultural.
Closer to home, scholars at KNUST have called for the decolonisation of hair policies, urging schools to embrace Afrocentric styles such as braids, locs, and twists.
Their argument is simple but profound: to truly educate the African child, we must allow her to exist as herself.
A Call for Common Sense
If the goal is discipline, there are better ways to achieve it. Schools can maintain standards of neatness, cleanliness, and respect without resorting to blanket bans on hair length or style.
They can promote equality by ensuring all students have access to affordable grooming and hygiene resources, not by erasing their individuality.
And they can teach respect not through punishment, but through participation, by involving students and parents in setting fair, reasonable guidelines.
Are these rules making our students more focused, disciplined, or curious? Or do they simply make them more fearful and compliant?
A fearful and compliant student body should never be the outcome of an education system; it is a symptom of failure rather than accomplishment.
Education should cultivate minds capable of critical thought and leadership, yet we continue to produce students trained to conform in a world that rewards the opposite.
Technology is transforming industries, economies, and even the nature of work at a pace never seen before. In such an era, young people who are taught to obey without questioning are already at a disadvantage on the global stage.
Africa’s youth are set to become the most prominent and populous generation in the world, a demographic powerhouse with the potential to redefine innovation and leadership. Our education policies must rise to meet that future, not stifle it. We should be preparing young Africans to shape the world, not simply fit into it.
Let Go of the Past
Ghana’s education system has a proud legacy, but it requires evolution. The world our children are stepping into values creativity, critical thinking, and self-awareness, not blind conformity.
It’s time we recognised that a student’s sense of self, including something as simple yet symbolic as their hair, is not a distraction from learning; it is an expression of identity that shapes how they learn, lead, and engage with the world.
We often say education is the passport to the future. If that’s true, then we cannot keep stamping that passport with the ink of the past.
Let us build an education system that embodies confidence, inclusion, and respect, one that treats students not as subjects to be controlled but as citizens to be prepared, empowered, and inspired.
Because in the end, it does matter, not just the rules we enforce, but the kind of people those rules help our children become.
Source: Marcia Ashong-Sam, MCIArb