Robert Nesta Morgan, minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) with responsibility for information, is today (April 26) criticising Kingston College (KC) for ‘cruel’ hair standards as school administrators insisted students exhibit better grooming before being allowed entry. 

Morgan, reacting to a report published in the Jamaica Gleaner, found it unconscionable that the students of the all-boy, North Street-based institution were denied a day’s worth of education because their hair was ‘unacceptably too high’. 

For the de facto minister, KC’s stance towards even a disabled student, pictured with crutches and resting on a utility pole, was aloof and uncaring. 

“This must be a special kind of cruelty. So what if no one is at home, where will this young man on crutches go?” Morgan asked. 

“So, the young man on crutches ‘broke the rules’. Answer, lock him out? I’ve been told (sic). The young man on crutches was born like that and it’s his permanent condition. Each day this young man travels by public transportation to and from school. There must be a better way,” he continued.

Morgan also disagreed with Twitter suggestions Kingston College has its ‘established rules’ towards grooming, counterarguing that non-compliance to these standards should never be a reason to dismiss students who dutifully show up for school.

In his eyes, arbitrarily enforced rules only seem to apply to black students, which does not aid Jamaica’s efforts to turn youth away from a life of crime and violence.

“We complain a lot about ‘the young men pon corner’. Are we saying that your hair is a passport to access education? This doesn’t sit well with me. Unless your black hair fits into a particular form you can’t be educated? The gangs and the corner don’t have a hair requirement,” he argued.

According to the Jamaica Gleaner report, the upper-form students who sported ‘high’ hair were barred from entering KC this morning, with both the principal and the dean of discipline declaring they should go home and get trimmed. 

The KC incident has renewed calls by Jamaican Twitter for the Ministry of Education to either do away with oppressive, colonial-esque mementoes of the country’s history or reprimand schools that bar students on the premise of grooming.

The Twitterati is further slamming KC for being ‘okay’ with so-called inappropriate hairstyles as the newly crowned ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ champions at Kingston’s National Stadium in March only to be ‘undesirable’ at school.

The ministry, in its 2018 Student Dress and Grooming Policy Guidelines, points to five conditions that must be met by schools in the establishment of uniform and hair rules.

“The National Policy Guidelines are underpinned by five guiding principles set out below:

• rules are rights-based and non-discriminatory in treatment and effect;
• rules promote the safety, health and well-being of students;
• rules reflect moderation, reasonableness & rationality;
• rules are practical and affordable; and
• rules promote positive values and attitudes.

“Every PEI (public educational institution) shall have a documented Student Dress Code developed in consultation with students, parents and the staff of the institution. This must be approved by the Board of Management of the institution, and made available to all parents and students. A school uniform must be adopted under the Student Dress Code for primary and secondary PEIs (optional for colleges and training centres). It is expected that every student (supported by their families) will comply with their institution’s Student Dress Code, subject to exemptions or modifications granted by the principal in appropriate cases,” wrote the ministry.

Education Minister Fayval Williams, as recently as June last year, warned Jamaican school administrators that hairstyles should not hinder education. 

• RELATED: Here to stay: Education Ministry warns against hair discrimination in schools