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Three final year students of St John’s Grammar Senior High School who were denied the opportunity to write their final year West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) on grounds that they had a busy hair can seek legal redress for violation of their human rights, a human rights lawyer has suggested.

The three girls; Harriet Boakye, Betty Boakye and Abigail Rockson were on Monday prevented from writing the Christian Religious Studies paper in the ongoing WASSCE because they had kept a bushy hair, contrary to the school’s rules and regulations.

A human rights lawyer, Francis Xavier Sosu who is also an old student of the school explained that the contract to write the examination is between the West Africa Examination Council and the students and not the school and that WASSCE only uses the school as an agent to conduct the examination.

Secondly, the WASSCE requirement for writing the examination does not include physical appearance of the candidate.

“personal hygiene is not a requirement so it does not matter if the person has a busy hair, grown nails, or whether the person has  had his bath , brushed his teeth  or not”. Mr Sosu contended.

He said the action of the school is in clear violation of the basic rights of the students adding that the incident could have a psychological effect on the students in their subsequent examination.

He notes that although the Ghana Education Service has directed the school to ensure that the students are registered to write the examination in November, that is not enough to make up for the lost opportunity.

“Some students write the main examination and register for the Nov Dec in subjects they feel they will not perform too well”, he explained.

He therefore called on the GES to go beyond the directive and institute a disciplinary action against the said teacher.