Education ministry says schools cannot deny access to classes over hairstyles

The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion has moved to clar­i­fy its po­si­tion on stu­dent hair­styles af­ter an im­age, al­leged­ly from a sec­ondary school, cir­cu­lat­ed wide­ly on so­cial me­dia out­lin­ing strict groom­ing rules and show­ing ex­am­ples of hair­styles de­scribed as “not ac­cept­ed”.

The im­age, ti­tled School Rules 2026, lists de­tailed re­stric­tions on hair length and styles for fe­male stu­dents, in­clud­ing lim­its on bun size and bans on cer­tain nat­ur­al hair­styles.

In a state­ment is­sued in re­sponse, the min­istry said the Na­tion­al School Code of Con­duct does not pre­scribe or pro­hib­it spe­cif­ic hair­styles.

The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion says schools must not ex­clude stu­dents from class­es or school ac­tiv­i­ties be­cause of their hair­style or groom­ing, stress­ing that any rules must be rea­son­able, non-dis­crim­i­na­to­ry and in the best in­ter­est of the child.

The min­istry said schools are al­lowed to es­tab­lish rules on uni­form and groom­ing to sup­port or­der, safe­ty and dis­ci­pline, but stressed that these rules must be ap­plied fair­ly and con­sis­tent­ly and must not re­sult in hu­mil­i­a­tion, ex­clu­sion or de­nial of ac­cess to learn­ing.

Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath said: “Our ap­proach is clear: schools may set groom­ing guide­lines, but they must be rea­son­able, re­spect­ful, and nev­er de­ny a child their right to ed­u­ca­tion.”