Religious beliefs can’t be exhibited in schools – NAGRAT to Rastafarians, GES

The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) has fiercely resisted a directive from the Ghana Education Service for management of Achimota School to admit two students with dreadlocks.

GES Director-General Prof Kwasi Opoku Amankwa told the Daily Graphic last Saturday that the management cannot deny admission on the basis of the person’s religious beliefs.

The intervention was hailed by many including parents of the affected students.

But a news conference today March 22, NAGRAT said the GES cannot be making exemptions to students in conforming to school rules.

NAGRAT President Eric Angel Carbonu said the exemptions will lead to a chaotic school environment in the country and has asked the GES to redirect the management of Achimota School to ensure students abide by rules.

He said “the population of students in Achimota Senior High School is about 4,000 students with about 130 teachers. To be able to manage 4,000 students coming from different homes with different upbringing, different training and different behaviour needs to have universal rules and regulation that ought to be followed by all students in the school, We cannot begin, this day, to start making exemptions for individual students based on their belief, based on their culture, based on their tradition, and based on many other issues”.

“That will lead to a chaotic school environment. And a chaotic school environment becomes an indisciplined school environment that cannot produce the result that we expect. NAGRAT totally disagrees with the position of the management of the GES and we are calling on the GES to redirect the headmistress and the staff of the Achimota Senior High School to ensure that the rules and regulations of Achimota School and indeed any other senior high school is abided by every student.”

Mr Carbonu added “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.”