‘MUST THEY SACRIFICE SELFHOOD?’

EQUAL Education (EE) has expressed its outrage after reports of discrimination at several schools, including Lawson Brown High in Port Elizabeth and Pretoria High School for Girls, where black pupils have been prohibited from wearing Afros. Saying it is “unfortunately not unsurprised that many school governing bodies continued to enforce rules that are unconstitutional”, it says it has found deep-seated prejudices in many schools’ policies and institutional culture.

Equal Education has assisted Rastafarian, foreign and pregnant pupils either unlawfully barred from enrolling or staying in school due to discriminatory practices. It says the root cause is “institutional prejudice – schools are either ignorant of the law or prepared to disregard it”.

At Lawson Brown High School, pupil Unathi Gongxeka said she felt “violated” when teachers told her to tie up or straighten her hair. The school denied this. In 2013, the Equal Education Law Centre defended a Rastafari pupil with dreads, barred from the classroom. A court found in her favour.

Equal Education says that “while discrimination and exclusion happen at affluent and impoverished schools, hair is one aspect of a broader process whereby black learners at many former model C schools are forced to assimilate to the dominant institutional culture. It is entirely unfair to force them to sacrifice an aspect of their selfhood to receive a quality education”.