Koku Anyidoho, the suspended member of the National Democratic Congress has suggested that it is within the rights of the management of Achimota School to reject the Rastafarian students.
On Tuesday, March 23, US-based Ghanaian Professor his full name please, Kwaku Asare in advancing an argument for the school to admit the students, revealed that Major Boakye Gyan, a member of the 1979 coup plotters was allowed to practice ancestral worship at the school.
“Our public schools have always tolerated religious rights. Achimota allowed Major Boakye Gyan to practice his “ancestral worshipping religion.
“I attended Catholic schools and they allowed students of other faiths to practice their religion. This accommodation was not only right but it was an important lesson on tolerance to us,” Azar wrote on his Facebook timeline.
“Quite apart from religious tolerance, our schools have also accommodated students’ health needs. Kwabotwe [Mfantsipim School] allowed Tsatsu Tsikata to smoke asthmatic cigarettes. Allowing Rastafarians to wear their dreads will not interfere with any educational objective.”
Sharing a GhanaWeb story on the opinion by Kwaku Azar, the Chief Executive Officer of the Atta Mills Institute said that just as the school allowed Boakye Gyan to practice his faith, it can also disallow him.
“Kwaku Azar: you are saying that the School "ALLOWED". It means the school can also DISALLOW,” he shared on Twitter.
Meanwhile, the perceived victimization of the Rastafarian family continues with St John’s Grammar set to withdraw its admission of siblings of Tyron Marhguy.
Ras Marhguy, the father of the students has disclosed that the students have been given an ultimatum to remove their dreadlocks or risk expulsion from the school.
“They came on the 18th [March 2021] to submit all the documents they were asked to bring. But they came with a complaint that the old students wanted me to come and talk about their hair. When we came to submit the [documents], I saw the headmaster and spoke pointed to the girls and told him I wanted to talk about their hair.
“But he said no problem, you should make sure they submit everything and then be in the school and then you can come next week so we talk. So I thought everything was cool until they came with this report yesterday,” he said.
“When we came, one man came out and told us that Achimota is their sister school and that they have rules which must be obeyed and so if we wanted the kids to be in the school, we should go cut their hair,” he claimed.