The Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu has emphatically and categorically stated that long hairs will not be tolerated in senior high schools (SHS) in the country. The comments by the minister follows recent debate questioning the basis not allowing students to wear long natural hair on campus. The debate was sparked by a viral video of a young female students cutting her long hair in tears before heading the Yaa Asantewaa Girls SHS. Many have questioned the age old code of the Ghana Education Service, GES demanding it be abandoned.
But speaking at the Mawuli Senior High School’s 75th anniversary in the Volta Region on Saturday [Oct 25, 2025], Mr. Iddrisu said the education authorities were not going to tolerate any long hair “today or tomorrow” and added the secondary school environment was not “a place for a beauty contest.”
According to the minister if government cedes to the pressure and change the rules on hair styles, it could open the floodgates for other demands.
“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.”
“If we give in to hair today, tomorrow it will be shoes, and the next day it will be the way they [students] dress.” He warned.
The minister consequently charged school authorities to strictly enforce disciplinary measures to ensure conformity across the country.
“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.”
“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 stated.
In 2021, a similar incident at the Achimota School in Accra about raster hair for some form one students generated a national debate.
