Cornrows for boys? Samuda says grooming policy being reviewed to reflect new normal
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Minister of Education Karl Samuda says the ministry will be reviewing its Grooming Policy of 2018.
Speaking on Nationwide News Network yesterday, Samuda said the policy will be subject to close scrutiny before it is brought to Cabinet.
His announcement came on the day the Supreme Court released its written judgement on a challenge to the rules of Kensington Primary School in St Catherine, which has a “no braids, no beads, no locs” policy.
The judgement followed action brought by the parents of a child enrolled at the school, who wears locs, and who the school said was in breach of the rule.
“Ironically, a child can go to school in America with dreads, and nobody even looks; in fact some want to copy. It’s a new normal, it’s a different world,” the minister said.
“Youths of today identify, and from my exposure, proudly so with the people who are members of the Rastafarian movement. They attribute to the Rasta a sense of not only belonging, but as a contribution to who we are,” he added.
During the interview, Samuda also said that the new policy could see male students being allowed to wear groomed cornrows to school in the future.
“It’s not the style on your head but the content of your mind. I am concerned that the child gets an opportunity to be properly taught, to prepare him or herself to go from one level to another, and make not only himself and his family proud, but the entire Jamaica,” Samuda said.
