Your parents’ religion is your problem not Achimota – Kwame Akuffo to Rasta students

An old student of Achimota school Kwame Akuffo says the school’s decision to refuse admission to the students with dreadlocks is right and constitutional.

According to Mr Akuffo, who is a legal practitioner, if exceptions are made for the Rastafarians then a child of a fetish priest should also be admitted and be allowed to attend school with their raffia skirt.

“It’s the parent’s choice of religion that is affecting the child’s ability to go and study. We can’t open the gate to where nobody knows where we’re going to. Are we saying the fetish priest’s child should be allowed to attend school with his raffia skirt because it’s a manifestation of his religious beliefs?. What the school is has done is constitutional and the right thing to do. Are we saying that when this child completes Achimota School, he can enter the military with dreadlocks?

“If someone was admitted to the school with dreadlocks in the past, I’m not aware but that shouldn’t become benchmark for the future,” he told Francis Abban on the Morning Starr Wednesday.

The admission standoff between parents of the students with the dreadlocks and Achimota school is still raging as the school insists they cannot be admitted until they cut off the hair. The Ghana Education Service has reversed an earlier directive asking the authorities of Achimota school to admit the students.

Teacher unions in the country have backed the decision of the GES and Achimota.

“One does not understand why people want to turn our schools into deregulated institutions where people’s whims and caprices hold way. The school is not a fashion environment, the school is not an environment to exhibit one’s religious beliefs. The school is an environment for training and conformity is part of training,” NAGRAT President Eric Angel Carbonu said.

Commenting on the development, Dr Amoako Baah said the school cannot be compelled to admit the students.

“If the school insists that he has to cut it off, he has to cut it off. We make girls cut their hair and there’s a purpose for it. It’s not a matter of going there to do what you want. White people’s hair is not like our hair. We shouldn’t talk about it because we want to win points. If he wants an education, he should forget the hair. That’s it, very simple,” he told Francis Abban on the Morning Starr.