Draft grooming policy for Sept term

WESTERN BUREAU:

EDUCATION MINISTER Fayval Williams has announced that a draft of the long-awaited grooming policy for schools will be made available in time for the September 4 start of the new school year.

Addressing yesterday’s third and final day of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association’s 59th annual conference at the Royalton Negril Resorts and Spa in Negril, Westmoreland, Williams said that the draft has not been officially finalised in order to give schools a chance to provide feedback that can be implemented in updating the policy.

“We want you to understand the framework within which the dress and grooming policy will operate, and we want you to try it in your schools and give us your feedback. That is why it is in draft form as we could have moved to making it final, but we want to hear from you,” Williams told the educators.

“It is going to take longer for us to get to that final stage, but your input is important because you may say to us, ‘This policy sounds good on paper, but in implementation, here are some issues’. The drafted dress and grooming policy will be published before the new school year starts,” Williams added.

The minister’s update follows last August’s series of consultations that the Ministry of Education held on the issue of student dress and grooming in schools with the objective of developing a policy for educational institutions that will balance students’ rights while complying with school rules.

The policy’s objective is to reduce discriminatory practices in schools that are based on students’ hairstyles and grooming practices while addressing the need for discipline at the school level and the development of wider-reaching societal values.

It is set to consider cultural identity, climatic conditions, socio-economic circumstances of parents, and the aims and objectives of the educational institutions the students attend.

Respect religion

“There are a few times that I have gone to schools and I see students, including one or two boys at a particular school, wearing tams to cover their locks. This is 2023, and we really should not be doing that anymore as we need to respect other people’s religion,” said Williams.

“We need to say to our students, ‘You have to ensure that your hair is clean, and so forth’, but come on, we should not have to cover your hair unless that is what your religion calls for,” Williams added.

The issue gained national attention in August 2018 when human rights group Jamaicans for Justice filed a motion in the Supreme Court on behalf of Dale and Sherine Virgo after their daughter, who was five years old at the time, was barred from attending classes at the Kensington Primary School in Portmore, St Catherine, due to wearing a dreadlocked hairstyle.

The Supreme Court subsequently ruled two years later that the child’s constitutional rights were not breached when the school denied access to her because of her dreadlocks despite the parents’ insistence that the hairstyle was part of the family’s identity.