The leadership of the 25,000-strong Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) has thrown its backing behind the “school is not a fashion runway” response by Education Minister Dr Dana Morris Dixon on the vexatious subject of student hair grooming styles.

Speaking at Wednesday’s post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House in St Andrew, Morris Dixon said, while grooming in schools remains a contentious issue, the country has to “balance order”, an issue with which it struggles as a nation and has to “ensure that order is maintained in our educational institutions”.

In acknowledging that students desire to express themselves in different ways, through hair, dress, or otherwise, the education minister said,“the key thing we know is that school is not a fashion runway. School is… a place of learning, and for us, our focus is on… ordered learning in our schools”.

Speaking with the Jamaica Observer on Thursday, JTA President Dr Mark Smith said Morris-Dixon’s stance was a balanced one.

“We support the pronouncements of the minister; there is a policy and we believe that the policy provides enough space and scope in ensuring that there is a consultative process and recognising the nuances that exist within our schools,” he said.

“Obviously, we want to protect the constitutional rights of all our people and our children, but we also have to be mindful that a part of this highly contentious issue has been the idea that at the end of the day we have to prepare children to go into the workplace that themselves have rules and regulations governing grooming. And we are teaching the discipline about how it is that you groom yourself,” added Smith.

“Now, the truth is, if within a school community it is decided among the key stakeholders, led by its board of governors, that they would like, for instance, to have an ultra-liberal approach where there is no restriction on hairstyles, then it is up to that school community, through a consultative process, to establish that. If you have a more orthodox or traditional approach, again that should be emerging from consultation,” Smith added.

While noting that over time positions might change because school boards can become more liberal or less liberal, Smith said, “that flexibility is what I think is the best compromise”.

“Some schools people want their children to attend because the students they put out; the way in which they carry themselves is a big part of the reason they gravitate to those schools along with the academics. It’s not just about academics,” the JTA president reasoned.

He also noted that there was a practical side to the resistance to certain styles.

“It’s also a matter of hygiene. The truth is that there are some students who will not do the requisite haircare for wearing hair at a particular height…you might find that in some schools teachers have struggled with that, particularly when it comes onto the boys… in other schools hygiene is no issue, parents ensure that the boys shampoo, they go to the hairdresser and get it done, while in another that’s not done,” Smith, who is also principal of the all-boys Munro College in St Elizabeth, told the Observer.

The JTA head, in the meantime, noted that the life lessons being taught must not be ignored.

“What we are teaching them is that whatever the school community agrees on they are expected to comply because, as the minister said, it is not a runway. I am, as a proud black man, loving my hair and who I am, but I need to also respect that there are rules and I may not necessarily like them but I respect them…We want to pass these values on to our children,” Smith stated.

In making it clear that he was mindful that locks, for example, are considered a sacrament of members of the Rastafarian community, Smith said, “I am a person that speaks a lot about decolonising our education system, and part of that is ensuring that we don’t shame people, [but] there is this new thing where people don’t want to comb their hair because not combing their hair is how they express themselves; but for some jobs you go into there may be a requirement for you to treat your hair in a particular way.

“So you are trying to establish distinct standards within the schools, and I think that where the ministry is with the policy, it has garnered by and large a great degree of support. It empowers the school boards, it empowers the PTA [Parent-Teachers Association], it empowers the students’ council to work through the board structure to bring about that type of change and I think that at that times this is good compromise,” the JTA president noted.