Students now free to choose their hairstyles, court rules happymamay

After years of quarrels with authorities, students in Thailand can now leave their hair. literally.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Administrative Court of Thailand canceled a 50 -year -old direction by the Ministry of Education, which had previously identified bases on hairstyles for school students: short hair for boys and pebbles for girls.

In practice, hairstyle rules were gradually relaxed across many schools. But some still use the 1975 JUNTA guidance as a guidance principle, and will cut the hair of students who have not adhered to.

The court said that the 1975 directives violated individual freedoms protected under the constitution and was far from today’s society.

The court’s decision this week came in response to a petition, presented by 23 students in public schools in 2020, which argued that the 1975 direction was unconstitutional.

Student activists have long been a campaign to relax the hairstyle rules, saying that he violates their human dignity and their personal freedom on their bodies.

One of them is Panthin Aculthanusak, who recently graduated from the university.

“In the eyes of children like us at the time … although it seems impossible, we wanted to do something,” he told the BBC. “If there is no student in Thai history to challenge the power of adults who suppressed us, it will be embarrassing for life.”

In response to the campaigns of such campaigns, the Ministry of Education allowed in 2020 students to obtain longer haircuts – but some restrictions remained. Boys’s hair cannot cover their necks, while girls with long hair had to tie it.

These regulations were canceled in 2023, with the then Minister of Education Treenwich Thinaong announced that students, parents and school authorities must negotiate their common causes on what is acceptable to hairstyles in their schools.

But through all these changes, some schools continued to follow the standard shown in the original guidance of 1975.

Schools are traditionally associated with short hair with discipline and arrangement – an argument repeated by many social media users this week. But in recent years, reports on schools that prohibit explosions or dyed hair have sparked a general cry across Thailand.

In some parts of the country, it is known that teachers cut students during the morning assembly to punish them due to the hairstyle rules. These practices continued even as the education authorities warn of teachers.

In January, the Ministry of Education repeated that it had eliminated restrictions along the hair for all students, saying it realized “the importance of enhancing diversity and fairness in all aspects of education.”

The court’s decision on Wednesday, which also says that the hairstyle rules in schools must consider the freedom and dignity of students, reaffirming the official batch to leave the hair options even the students themselves.

But Panthin said that the nullity of the old guidance “still leaves a hole for schools to set its own rules.” In cases where schools are more conservative, he suggested that restrictions may remain in place.

However, Pantin said that he “felt happy because what I saw and fought all the time was recognized and there was tangible progress.”

“I hope that the ruling of this court will determine a new standard for understanding basic human rights in the school.”