Asking Rastafarians to build their own schools was offensive - Okudzeto Ablakwa blasts NAGRAT Prez

He said the comment was provocative and ill-timed in the debate on whether Achimota School should admit children with dreadlocks.

Mr Ablakwa said: “In many other jurisdictions, far-reaching reforms have taken place about school rules so as to build a fairer, just and equitable society”, warning: “Let us not, through school rules, introduce an apartheid regime albeit via the backdoor”. 

“This is the reason I will condemn statements to the effect that Rastafarians should build their own schools. As a non-Presbyterian who was admitted to PRESEC, I feel terribly offended by such reckless statements”, he said. 

“As I have noted earlier, we need to rethink our concept of discipline in our schools. Getting pupils and students to appreciate diversity and the beauty of different backgrounds, beliefs and creeds does not undermine discipline by any stretch of imagination. 

“Tolerance and accepting unique identities at that age cannot be inimical in any educational system. It is rather an awesome positive quality to imbibe in our children. In any case, don’t our children see the people we are refusing to admit all around them in real life and in their reading materials?” the former deputy education minister added.

He said: “We must quickly fix this mess and get away from the distraction. The two students and all minority students facing blatant discrimination must be admitted immediately in the interest of their supreme welfare as the Children’s Act, Act 560 demands.” 

The President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Mr Angel Carbonu, proposed that Rastafarians set up their own schools during a press conference the group organised to kick against an initial directive – which was later rescinded – by the Ghana Education Service to the management of Achimota Senior High Schools to admit two dreadlocked Rastafarian students posted to the school by the computerised school placement system.