Three students prevent from writing WASSCE because of bushy hair.

The Ghana Eduction Service (GES) has directed authorities at the St John’s Grammar Senior High School in Accra to prepare three of its students to write the Christian Religious Studies paper in the upcoming November/December edition of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

According to the GES, the school should prepare the students for the examination at its own cost. The three students  Harriet Boakye, Betty Boakye and Abigail Rockson  were last Monday prevented from writing the paper in the ongoing WASSCE because they had kept bushy hair, contrary to the school’s rules and regulations.

The acting Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr Jacob Kor, who gave the directive during a visit to
the school yesterday, described the timing of the disciplinary action as inappropriate.

Exercise caution He said inasmuch as the students had flouted some of the school’s rules and regulations, it was only proper for the disciplinary action to be taken against them after they had written the paper.

“When students in the final year are having disciplinary problems and it is time for examination, they should be allowed
to write the examination and thereafter you deal with them. You don’t deal with them during the process of the examination
because it gives the students more fear and impatience to write the examination,” he said.

Additionally, he said, once the students had registered with the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), there was a
contract between the council and the students and as such school administrators should handle such disciplinary issues
within the examination period with a bit of caution.

Giving an account of the events that led to the prevention of the students from writing the paper, the Headmaster of St John’s, Mr Emmanuel Ofoe Fiemawhle, said six students were identified to have bushy hair and asked to go and trim their hair before they would be allowed to write the paper.

Unfortunately, he said, three of them refused to adhere to the
directive and left to report the school authorities to an Accra-based radio station, Peace FM.
He said the rest of their mates who had stayed and pleaded with
the authorities were permitted entry into the examination hall
to write the paper.