The protests of a group of school students against teachers who continue to enforce rigid haircut requirements hint at the answer to a far wider problem with the Thai education system.
After schools in Thailand reopened last Wednesday, several cases of penalties imposed by teachers against students who turned up with long hair were publicised. Pictures of students with ugly haircuts carried out by teachers as a punishment and stories about how teachers threatened students who defied school regulations (despite a national edict supposedly softening the rules) circulated online.
On Friday, the so-called "Bad Student" group, lodged a petition calling for action against these teachers and schools with Prasert Boonruang, permanent secretary of the Education Ministry. Ten of the group's members also staged a symbolic demonstration in Bangkok by cutting the hair of a female student to ear level, thereby breaking their school's rules on girls' haircuts.
Their petition said some teachers in 312 state-run schools are still ordering male students to have military-style buzzcuts if they turn up to lessons with what is perceived to be long hair. However, in May, the Education Ministry issued a new rule permitting boys to have longer hair.
In fact, there really shouldn't be any problem at all as way back in 2013 the Education Ministry issued an order abolishing strict limits on the length of students' hair after receiving complaints from students who had beeen punished for having long hair. A 1972 regulation required all schoolboys to wear crew cuts no longer than five centimetres and female students to have hair no longer than the base of their neck.
However, the Education Ministry issued a second ministerial regulation in 1975, allowing students to have longer hair, but stipulating that it must look tidy. The ministry in 2013 ordered all schools to abide by the 1975 ministerial regulation and earlier this year, the ministry issued another order to reaffirm that students can wear their hair long, so long as it is neat and tidy.
Unfortunately, many schools have continued to defy the orders, choosing instead to adhere to the outdated rule imposed 48 years ago. It is in retrograde decisions like this that it is plain to see why the reform of Thailand's education system is happening at such a snail's pace despite the Education Ministry receiving the lion's share of money from the budget each year. It receives a proportion of government expenditure higher than even Finland, for example, which is considered to have the best education system in the world.
Some teachers believe the short haircut requirement is a way to teach and maintain discipline among students. It is sadly ironic that in flouting the regulations these teachers are actually demonstrating the exact opposite.
Forced short haircuts and punishments are nothing but a way to hammer home a culture of unquestioning obedience to authority.
If schools want to set an example it should be by adhering to the tenets of a free society that respects the rights of individuals to express themselves as they see fit as long as they commit no crime. There is no clear correlation between hair length and good or bad behaviour or performance in the scholastic system.
Teacher's carry a lot of respect in Thai society and the burden they carry to shape the nation's youth is a heavy load to bear. Nevertheless, there is no excuse for them ignoring the rights of these inquisitive young minds and consequently setting a poor example for them to follow.