The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

DEPUTY Prime Minister Chester Cooper yesterday defended public-school grooming rules that restrict hairstyles such as braids and twists for boys, saying the policy is “working” even as students at some private schools are permitted to wear them.

“Where it’s not broken, we’re not going to try to fix it,” Mr Cooper said. “I don’t believe we have a serious issue in that area.”

His defence comes as another school year revives a familiar argument over how tightly Bahamian students should be policed over their appearance.

The Tribune reported earlier this month that Education Director Dominique McCartney-Russell said there had been no discussion about relaxing the Ministry of Education’s grooming rules despite longstanding criticism and previous disputes involving students whose hairstyles were deemed unacceptable.

Mr Cooper said yesterday he did not regard the issue as controversial.

“I don’t know that I would say there’s a controversy about it,” he said. “Quite frankly, the policy exists. That policy is going to continue.”

He linked grooming and uniform requirements to discipline and order in schools.

“We have uniforms for a reason,” Mr Cooper said. “We want students to come, and we want them to exercise discipline. We want them to really be a part of an ecosystem that’s been working fairly well.”

The Ministry’s grooming policy includes low haircuts for boys and restrictions on extensions for girls.

The contrast with some private schools came into sharp focus earlier this year when St Andrew’s posted photographs of its Head Boy and Deputy Head Boy wearing braids and twists. The photographs fuelled questions over why natural hairstyles worn by students at a prominent private school remain restricted in the public system.

Mr Cooper said exceptions are made where students wear their hair in a particular way for religious reasons.

“No child is turned away if they have religious reasons, for example, for wearing their hair a certain way, and it’s working,” he said. “I haven’t heard it to be a controversy, quite frankly.”

The debate over school appearance broadened this week after a Facebook post by C V Bethel Senior High School said its policy included plain blue or black school bags, prompting criticism online.

Mr Cooper said he was unaware of any such requirement across the public-school system.

“In my living room right now, on the way to Exuma, it’s about 500 backpacks of multiple colour,” he said. “The colours there, they are beautiful, and I don’t believe that there’s any school restricting them in the public system to a specific colour.”

In fact, CV Bethel indeed restricts the colour of bags students are allowed to bring.

He nevertheless made clear that the government remains committed to uniformity in schools.

“We try to keep standards. We try to have all of our students looking uniformed,” Mr Cooper said. “We think it’s good for order. We think it’s good for the environment, and I certainly expect that these rules are going to continue.”

“Rules are important, laws are important,” he said, “and that’s how you keep an orderly society.”