Photos courtesy of Bangkok Post
School students recently welcomed the education minister’s order to all schools to abolish the strict limits on the length of students’ hair.
Read the following story from the Bangkok Post to learn more about this change.
Phongthep Thepkanchana issued the order on January 9 after receiving a number of complaints from students who said that they were punished at school for having long hair.
Their schools, however, claimed that the length of their hair violated a 1972 ministerial regulation, which 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 necks.
However, the Education Ministry issued a second ministerial regulation in 1975 allowing students to have longer hair, but stipulating that it must look tidy.
NEW ORDER
Phongthep ordered all schools to treat their students the same under the 1975 regulation, adding that schools should allow male students to have long hair as long as it looks neat and clean-cut. Female students can now choose to have either short or long hair.
STUDENT APPROVAL
The Bangkok Post interviewed some students in Bangkok and found that they were happy with Phongthep’s order. Kiettisak Chu-in, a Matayom 1 student at Matthayom Wat Makut Kasattriyaram School, said he and his classmates were very pleased that the school would now allow them to sport longer hair.
“We have had crew cuts since we were in primary school, but now we won’t need to have our hair cut every month,” Kiettisak said.
Kiettisak agreed with the minister’s order, saying that hair length and style are not related to educational performance.
RELUCTANT COMPLIANCE
Not everybody, however, was pleased with the new decision. Alongkorn Niyakit, deputy director of Matthayom Wat Makut Kasattriyaram School, said he received the order and would comply with it, even though he personally disagreed with it.
Alongkorn said that the 1972 ministerial regulation was good because crew cuts make students look tidy and clearly differentiates them from adults.
Exercises
Read the story. Then, decide whether the following statements are true or false.
1. The 1972 regulation required all schoolboys to wear crew cuts no longer than five centimetres.
2. Kiettisak Chu-in is a university student.
3. Alongkorn Niyakit agrees with Phongthep’s order.
4. Kiettisak Chu-in said that hair length and style are not related to educational performance.
Vocabulary
- abolish (v): to officially end a law, a system or an institution
violate (v): to go against or refuse to obey a law, an agreement, etc.
crew cut (n): a hairstyle for men in which the hair is cut very short
tidy (adj): arranged neatly and with everything in order
clean-cut (adj): looking neat and clean and therefore socially acceptable
sport (v): to have or wear something in a proud way so that everybody can see
comply (v): to obey a rule, an order, etc.
differentiate (v): to be the particular thing that shows that things or people are not the same
