The hashtag #ก็ผมหนูปะคะ or “but it’s my hair” went viral on Twitter as Thai students were outraged over guidelines rolled out by the Ministry of Education, allowing for schools to dictate whether students will still have to follow grooming regulations.
The guidelines, giving discretion to the schools, was a rehash of older orders previously handed down by the ministry, this despite the Ministry of Education saying that students should not be limited to short haircuts.
Under Clause 7 of the Ministry of Education’s regulations, it states that it is up to the discretion of the school to decide on guidelines for grooming. It adds that students are also responsible for implementing these regulations. Many educators have come to say that old restrictions would remain in place.
The Ministry of Education had previously said that they value human dignity over strict grooming regulations but they have also failed to provide any clear guidelines for it, Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal, a student activist, told the Thai Enquirer on Tuesday.
“Because there are different values [human dignity and orderliness] in the new rules set out by the Ministry of Education, when teachers have to choose, they choose orderliness because they are used to it,” added Netiwit.
“I am pushing for this to be decided by the court. These rules violate human dignity so we should not have to force each other to follow them.”
Here are some of the tweets that people have been sharing regarding the new grooming regulations:
