‘The four general principles of the UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) are: rights to be applied without discrimination; the best interests of the child to be a primary consideration; the right to life, survival, and development; and respect for the views of the child.’
https://www.gov.scot/publications/embedding-childrens-rights-scotland-scottish-position-statement/
The UNCRC is a list of fundamental children’s rights which signatories agree to protect. Its 35th anniversary was just celebrated in Barbados and worldwide.
This treaty has been agreed to by more countries than any other. All the member nations of the UN, 196 countries, have ratified it, with the sole exception being the USA. Ratification means that signatories are bound by international law to ensure that the rights enshrined in the Convention are enjoyed and exercised by all children in their respective countries.
The UNCRC states that all children have the same human rights as adults, as well as extra child-specific rights that they need so that they can learn, grow, play, develop and reach their full potential.
The UNCRC also makes the distinction between parental rights and children’s rights. Sometimes the rights of the child may supersede the normal rights of parents. All adults who interact with children – parents, day care workers, teachers, medical professionals, criminal justice professionals, bus drivers and more – all have a duty of care to respect the rights of children they come into contact with. Sometimes what is best for our children is not always what we are comfortable with as parents or adults.
There has been recent significant public comment regarding the 2023 National School Grooming Policy issued by the Ministry of Education. Some have asked for its repeal as it relates to hair styles. There has also been ongoing regional debate on school hair grooming policies, specifically as it relates to the ‘policing’ of hair.
I use the term ‘policing’ very deliberately. Past subjective judgement as to what was ‘acceptable’ at school, especially as it related to our predominantly black boys, was applied with a rigour which would make a Barbados Defence Force Commander proud!
From my ‘elderly’ perspective, some of the student hairstyles I’ve seen are a bit …. incompatible with wearing a school uniform. But I try to be empathetic enough to be open to the student perspective. Students in other countries, including the UK, who wear uniforms, are allowed to wear their hair in various styles which include locs and plaits for boys and there has been no resulting breakdown in school discipline. Put another way, we have had challenges with school discipline before the new School Grooming Policy when hair restrictions especially for boys were rigorously applied.
While some of us may feel that there is a direct correlation and causation between the relaxation of school hair grooming policies and the increase in student indiscipline, if we are guided by evidence-based data and not feelings that evidence is likely to show that there is little causation between the two.
Research has shown that there are myriad, complex and often interrelated family, community, psycho-social and economic, and learning challenges, which can negatively impact student discipline. While deportment is of course an important attribute, I have not seen any research which lists hairstyles specifically as major influences on school discipline.
I invite those of us who are uncomfortable with the current grooming policy to reflect on their discomfort. Is it solely ‘this is how it was done in my day’?
We acknowledge that our nation was a plantation society, which had both overt and implicit degradation of African-origin beauty. I do believe that many of us do not appreciate how much we have been ‘brainwashed’ and the extent to which that negative colonial legacy has persisted, despite the current celebration of African Awareness Month and other celebrations of our culture. How much do we equate ‘tidy’ hair as hair that lies flat on the head, and therefore most of our hair is inherently ‘untidy’ and so must be tamed?
Some believe that students should not have ‘all these hairstyles’ because that does not promote the discipline needed for the world of work. Clearly those who hold that view have never seen many workers today! We have certainly come a long way since 1986, when Ingrid Quarless was awarded $2,000 as compensation for her wrongful dismissal over her braids, by her boss at the Grand Bay Beach Resort.
Is it not ironic that were Prime Minister Mottley of school age, some would view her current hair style to be ‘untidy’?
The reason why I opened by mentioning the UNCRC, and its core principle of the right of the child to be heard, is to plead with my fellow Bajans to be willing to come out of our comfort zones and embrace change when the benefits of that change are invaluable.
The change in the School Grooming Policy is a recognition that one’s hairstyle can be considered a form of self-expression and of self-worth reinforcement. Allowing our children, especially as they mature, the ability to have a more modern approach to hairstyle, is a relatively small change which has big dividends in making their school day more enjoyable. That some hairstyles allow them to celebrate our African heritage, is a win worth considering, even when those hair styles don’t meet our adult, subjective approval. Some of us also forget that the school management still monitors student deportment; it has not become a free for all!
It sometimes makes me despair that so much energy is spent on such relatively superficial public debates, while much less time is spent on far more fundamental issues negatively afflicting too many of our youth: sexual and physical abuse, poverty, inequities in education, school violence and indiscipline, the significant numbers of students leaving school annually, after 15 years of education with such poor literacy and numeracy skills that they find it exceedingly difficult to function in society.
We are slowly adapting our institutions to reflect an enhanced appreciation of our children having rights distinct from even their parents/guardians. Certain national initiatives are impressive as an integral part of our obligations to the UNCRC. Barbados recently modernised its child rights’ and child protection legislation by passing the Child Protection Bill and the Child Justice Bill in 2024.
Additionally the School Grooming Policy; the creation of School Councils in all public secondary schools; the recent Child Rights Symposium with approximately 100 secondary school students in centre stage, coordinated with UNICEF, NGOs and six Government Ministers, all combine to send a powerful message that we are better listening to and empowering our children, and giving them more confidence to air their views, and have their perspectives included in public policy.
If we wish not to be left behind, if we truly wish our children to have the best competitive advantage as global citizens and not to just survive but thrive, we need to agree that gone are the days of children ‘being seen but not heard’. Those must be banished to the ash heap of history, along with the other relics of self-hate and our colonial past.
Cultural change can take time and can be painful, but ‘hair’ (pun intended), its benefits to our children, far outweigh our comfort with familiarity.
Paula-Anne Moore is the spokesperson and coordinator of the Group of Concerned Parents of Barbados and Caribbean Coalition for Exam Redress.
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