The Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, has strongly opposed growing calls for senior high school students to be allowed to keep long hair on campus, even when it is natural.
Speaking at the 75th anniversary celebration of Mawuli Senior High School in the Volta Region on Saturday, October 25, 2025, Mr. Iddrisu made it clear that the education authorities would not permit the practice under any circumstances.
“There is an ongoing debate about hair cuts, and size and length of hair in secondary schools. We will not tolerate it today or we will not tolerate it tomorrow, in so long as molding character,” he said.
The debate resurfaced after a viral social media video showed a first-year student of Yaa Asantewaa Senior High School in Kumasi crying as her hair was cut short at a barber shop before her admission. Her mother, who reportedly took her for the haircut, said the girl had kept her natural hair long for years. The barber recorded and posted the video online, sparking widespread discussion about school grooming rules, self-expression, and cultural pride.
However, the Education Minister dismissed the idea that schools should relax their codes of conduct to accommodate long hair, warning that such leniency could undermine discipline.
“If we give in to hair today, tomorrow it will be shoes, and the next day it will be the way they dress,” he cautioned in a video shared by Graphic Online.
Mr. Iddrisu, who addressed the gathering alongside the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), said headmasters and education authorities were empowered to maintain discipline on their campuses.
“Therefore, as part of our disciplinary measures, headmasters and GES, you are accordingly empowered to take full control of how students behave on your campuses,” he stated.
He added that schools must remain places for learning and moral training, not fashion or personal display.
“So anybody who thinks that your child will walk into any institution of learning, as if that child, forgive my words, was to attend a beauty contest, the school environment will not for that purpose and not cut for that purpose and we will not tolerate that as an institution,” the Minister said.
His comments come amid divided public opinion, with some Ghanaians arguing that allowing students to keep their natural hair promotes self-identity, while others insist that uniformity and discipline should remain the priority within schools.
[VIDEO] Haruna Iddrisu: We'll not tolerate long hair today or tomorrow in SHS. School is not place for beauty contest https://t.co/t0rv5foZLC pic.twitter.com/SzbR40Oyxi
— DailyGraphic GraphicOnline (@Graphicgh) October 26, 2025
