May 31 judgement day for Achimota Rasta student case
The Accra High Court has set May 31 to give its ruling in a suit filed by a Rastafarian student denied admission into Achimota School.
The court presided over by judge Gifty Agyei Addo made this known on Friday, May 14, after the court heard both parties in the matter.
Counsel for the Board of Governors of the Achimota School, Attorney General Godfred Dame, argued that the applicant had no cause of action.
According to him, nothing within the scope of his right to education and religion had been infringed upon, as suggested by the applicant.
Counsel for the rejected student, James Gawuga Nkrumah, on the other hand, insisted that his client’s rights had been denied.
He said there was no lawful basis for Achimota School to interfere with the applicant’s right to education based on his ‘rasta’. He manifests or expresses his constitutionally guaranteed right to religion and practice.
The suit filed by the father of one of the Rastafarian students on behalf of his son, Tyrone Marhguy, on March 31, sought to challenge the Achimota School for refusing to admit his son.
The applicant who filed the instant action before the Accra High Court wants an order directed at Achimota School to immediately admit or enrol the applicant to continue with his education unhindered.
The applicant is also seeking compensation for the “inconvenience, embarrassment, waste of time, and violation of his fundamental human right and freedom”.
Meanwhile, the court is preparing to hear another suit between Rastafarian Oheneba Nkrabea against the Achimota School, Attorney General, Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service.
Below is the suit
The genesis of the problem
A parent of one of the affected students, Ras Aswad Nkrabea, took to social media to express his frustration over the development.
“The school authorities denied two brilliant dreadlocked students from being admitted after being posted there by the Computer School Placement System.
“My son was one of the affected children, and the other student was also refused on the same grounds,” the disappointed father narrated in a Facebook post.
This generated a public uproar, with a section of Ghanaians calling out the school for discriminating against the students.
Breach of Right to Education
The development sparked public outrage on social media, with a section of the public condemning the actions of the authorities at Achimota School.
The Executive Director of the Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare, vehemently condemned the decision of the school to deny the Rastafarian students admission.
Article 25 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana establishes the right of the Ghanaian citizenry to have access to equal educational opportunities and facilities.
Mr Asare pointed out that the authorities at Achimota School have breached this provision of the constitution.
“The issue of education being a right is explicit in Article 25 of the 1992 Constitution… Section 3 and 8 of Act 560 explicitly states that no person shall discriminate against a child on the grounds of Religion and Custom.
“And in section A, the same Act provides that no person shall deprive the child access to education. Based on Article 25 of our constitution and its attendant regulations in the Children’s Act, no agency in this country has the right to deprive a child of the right to education.
“They’re wrong. I’m not the one saying they’re wrong. The Act of Parliament, Act 560, Section A is saying they’re wrong because they have discriminated against the child and denied the child his right to education,” Mr Asare said in an earlier interview.
It is almost an annual ordeal for Rastafarian families to be denied admission into second cycle institutions due to their dreadlocks.
Kofi Asare charged the Rastafarian Council of Ghana to go to court to end their frustrations.
Previous incident
The practice of school authorities turning away Ghanaian students with dreadlocks is an old one.
In September 2017, a teenager was denied admission into Accra Girls Senior High School because she had dreadlocks.
According to the father, his daughter is a Rastafarian, and it was against their religion to cut off the locks.
The distraught father said efforts to explain issues to school authorities proved futile.
He was convinced the school’s decision to deny his daughter admission is borne out of ignorance.