The Head of the Public Relations Unit at the Ghana Education Service (GES), Daniel Fenyi, has defended the enforcement of grooming and appearance rules in schools, emphasizing that education is not only about academic learning but also about preparing students for the realities of the professional world.
Mr. Fenyi has explained that the world of work is highly regulated, and as such, Ghana’s education system must reflect those same principles if it seeks to produce disciplined and employable graduates.
“We are training these children for the world of work, and the world of work is purely regulated. If we are being honest, there are many things we would love to do or say, but because of the places we find ourselves and the accompanying laws, we can’t,” he said in an interview on Onua FM’s morning show, Yen Nsempa, on Tuesday, October 28, 2025.
He cited professions such as the military and nursing, noting that individuals aspiring to join such fields are required to conform to strict grooming and appearance standards.
“The students who want to go into the military, the boys with beards, even those with neatly kept ones will have to trim them off because of the regulations. Those who want to go into nursing will have to put aside their expensive clothes and wear their uniforms,” he added.
According to Mr. Fenyi, if Ghana’s schools are truly committed to training students to be useful in the world of work, then discipline and regulation cannot be ignored.
“We have to regulate their behavior, their perception, and their thinking,” he stressed.
On the issue of hairstyles and grooming in schools, the GES spokesperson addressed public criticism that Ghana should emulate Western countries where students have more freedom over their appearance.
“People are quick to say, ‘In America or the UK, they allow students to wear their hair however they want,’ but the thing is, in those countries, 90% of students are day students who go home every day. In Ghana, about 80% of our students are boarders, so the dynamics are different,” he explained.
He cautioned against blindly copying foreign education models, citing the double-track system as an example of a policy that was imported without fully adapting it to Ghana’s realities.
“We can’t say because America does it this way, we should adopt it in Ghana. That’s how someone went to adopt the double track system—and we all saw how that turned out,” he remarked.
Touching on the double-track system, Mr. Fenyi assured the public that the Ministry of Education and the GES are committed to polishing it up by 2027.
“We have been transparent with the public from day one. We gave ourselves until 2027 two years from now, considering the vastness of the issues we came to meet and the distractions along the way. It’s not going to be a one-day cleanup,” he said.
He revealed that a committee working on the track conversion has conducted extensive data collection on schools nationwide to determine what each institution requires to transition smoothly from double track to single track.
“Some schools will need additional classrooms, others will need tables and chairs, while some have been oversubscribed. We are addressing all these issues methodically,” he stated.
The Ghana Education Service’s stance, according to Mr. Fenyi, reflects its broader mission to balance student freedom with discipline and to ensure that the country’s education system remains aligned with professional standards.
