‘Consider going to another school’ – Africa Education Watch to Rasta students

Education think tank, Africa Education Watch, has described the ruling by Accra High Court ordering Achimota School to admit the two Rastafarian students as a “win for right to education”.

In an interview on Campus Exclusive, Senior Research Fellow with Africa Education Watch, Divine Kpe, stated that no school rules and regulations should be used as an obstruction to one’s quest to accessing education.

He, therefore, urged the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to use the High Court’s ruling as a basis for harmonizing all school rules and regulations in the country

“As we have said, it is a win for right to education and a step in the right direction so that we can use this ruling to see how best we can synchronize some of our school rules and regulations that seems not to be in order and we can have a holistic inclusive education that we have all been advocating for,” he said.

Divine Kpe further advised that although the High Court has ordered Achimota School to admit the two Rastafarian students, it will be best if they looked for admission into other schools as they risk being victimized at Achimota School.

“Tyrone’s court case winning is just a good step that will be used to resolving several issues regarding policy in our school so I believe if this is done and he decides not to go to that school and go to another school…

“…that is best because I foresee that the child may not even have the best of school environment, the best of school climate for his studies so for me the ideal thing to do if I were the parent is to look for another school for him,” he added.

He also shot down assertions that admitting the Rastafarian students will “open the floodgates” for other religious demands by other sects of religious groupings.

He emphasized that those demands be evaluated based on the threat it poses to other stakeholders in the schools.

“Anything that somebody comes to school with on religious grounds, if that thing does not poses a threat to education, it does not pose any threat to the child’s health, it does not pose any threat to that of the colleagues as well I don’t see it as an issue that we should be having challenges with,” he stressed.