KINGSTON, Jamaica – Minister of Education, Skills, Youth and Information Dana Morris-Dixon has expressed support for grooming policies that allow young Jamaican students more freedom, especially with their natural hair. However, she stresses that it’s a decision for schools to make in consultation with students and parents.

“I feel very strongly about hair, very, very strongly about hair,” Morris-Dixon told Observer Online during the recent launch of the 7th Grade Academy at Holy Trinity High School in Kingston. “I understand some of the conversations around hair and what we’ve thought looks pretty and what’s beautiful, and we have to ensure that we make it very clear that black is beautiful.”

Her comments follow a row between a student of McGrath High School and the institution. The young man, in a TikTok video, says he was barred from school because of the length of his hair, and the school maintains that he violated the grooming policy.

The teen’s story went viral on social media prompting intervention from the ministry, think pieces on the intersection of cultural expression and respectability, as well as significant backlash against “outdated” policies.

Morris-Dixon said, having faced what she described as unacceptable questions about her own hair, she was empathetic toward young Jamaicans.

“I’m black, I wear my hair natural, and sometimes it’s a little bit on the wild side, and I’m very proud of it. I remember when I went natural in the corporate world, people asked me, why would you do that? For me to be asked that, that’s not acceptable. And so I understand,” the minister said.

She also acknowledged that many grooming policies, for school and work, are rooted in anti-blackness.

“We have to have a rules-based country,” she said, admitting, “Some of the notions, not just the rules, generally in our country have been rooted in colonial biases. I think as a ministry, we have to ensure that the frameworks that we provide make sure that that’s not the case– We have to do what we can to show that black is beautiful. And [doing] that while [respecting] the rules is important.”

Despite this, Morris-Dixon said the ministry has a top-down approach and can only provide an overarching framework for grooming policies. The more detailed rules are left up to schools.

However, the education minister says the decision process cannot be undertaken solely by educators but must include consultation with the students and parents.

“The priority for me is obviously education. It’s about learning, and so I would say to the schools, as you look at your grooming policy, which the ministry [instructed them to do]; talk to your community. Look at anything that’s in there that’s not really impacting learning, we want to have order but we also need to have some flexibility – and where there may be rules that can change– change it,” Morris-Dixon said.

She highlighted the Mandeville-based Manchester High School and Kingston’s Campion College as examples of institutions where students had had dialogue and pushed to change grooming rules successfully, describing it as “fantastic”.

“That’s what we want. We want our schools to engage with their communities and to talk through it,” the minister said. “And, of course, continue to do the work where we teach our children that they are beautiful in their black skins and that there’s nothing wrong with them.”