Child rights expert, Faith Marshall-Harris, is very much in favour of the review of the National Grooming Policy and she has rubbished suggestions linking the policy, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the necessary focus on our African heritage.
“I have been reluctant to get into this debate, which has at times been reduced to irrelevant considerations. No policy is written in stone and should be reviewed from time to time as necessary. With regard to this policy in particular, I heartily endorse the decision of the Chief Educational Officer, Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw, because while the policy was based on the best of intentions, it has had unintended consequences, to the detriment of the ethos of schools,” she said.
Marshall-Harris, who also sits as Chair of the National Committee on the Rights of the Child said she has seen first-hand how some students have interpreted the policy, and for some, it appeared to be an “un-grooming” policy.
“I am sure that the architects and drafters of the grooming policy had no intention of suggesting it should be a policy to permit lack of grooming, which is what I have noted and not because I have heard but because I have seen it. I have visited schools and I’ve seen the unintended bad consequences of the original policy.
“The fact that it seems to have suggested to some misguided children and young people that they can now wear hair extensions at waist length and in various colours, that it has suggested to some young men that they should not comb their hair at all. In fact, I’ve seen at one school where they sported large, uncombed afros with just an afro pick stuck in it and when I queried why, I was told that that was the style.”
She noted: “I have scrutinised the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and I do not see where this becomes a right that children must enjoy. In fact, the Convention, emphasises that parents and caregivers should guide children and they have the primary responsibility to do that.
“So an institution such as a school, where teachers are in loco parentis, have rules and regulations regarding dress and deportment, children should adhere to them. I do not find anywhere that flaunting rules on dress and deportment constitutes a right to self-expression, or the right to be heard or participate. An important exception is that where a matter of dress is allied to religious observance, such as where girls must cover their hair or their legs, then authorities
must permit them to do this as it touches on their right to religious belief.
“But I see no connection between that right and the present restrictions or lack thereof, contained in the National Grooming Policy.”
School rules
However, Marshall-Harris added, children do not have a right to deport themselves however they wish, with complete disregard of school rules.
“Those rules that suggest that they should be clean and that they should be tidy is not, in my view, harmful or restrictive. I accept that tidy for one race is not the same for another race, but I think that all of us have a general idea of what is clean and what is an acceptable level of grooming without it is becoming a major source of distraction from the core activity, which is gaining an education.”
In terms of recent suggestions that the current style of grooming by our children are part of their African heritage, Marshall-Harris states: “I think it’s past time that we see that any form of relaxation of rules is somehow upholding our African heritage and any obedience to authority or rule is somehow pandering to our colonial or European lifestyle, which is what I’m afraid is creeping into our discourse on this subject, which has nothing to do with it. I think that if we examine closely our African sisters and brothers of various tribes, types, and hues, you will see that they all have standards that they apply.
“So our idea that a complete relaxation of any form of standards is somehow uplifting our Africanity, I think, is to do a disservice to our African heritage.
Emphasising that the policy should not be about race at all, the child rights expert stated: “I wish persons would not drag this into the conversation, because as an expert on child rights, I’m here to say that child rights are about enabling children to have certain values and standards and teaching them and guiding them correctly for their positive development and therefore, a policy that directs them in a positive way is, as far as I’m concerned, part of their right to thrive in their community.” (MB)
