According to the Guardian, videos and reports are circulating on social media showing the teacher publicly cutting the hair of students at a public school in Phetchabun Province, Thailand, for allegedly breaking prescribed haircut rules. At least 100 children can be seen sitting in a row beside the school pole, their tufts of hair falling to the ground by the teacher’s hand.
For decades, students in Thailand have faced severe disciplinary measures. But resistance is growing against a system that seeks to make them more docile subjects than responsible citizens. The Ministry of Education reacted and relaxed the regulations in January. Now, schools should be able to develop their own guidelines, he said.
humiliation like everyday life
Opponents, however, reject this. They see the floodgates open to agency even more. The new rule is very vague and is unlikely to bring about any changes, the Guardian quotes the other side as saying. “The bottom line is that it gives schools complete freedom, and schools can do anything without consequences,” said Laponpat Wangpaisit of the Bad Students Group, which advocates reforms in the school system.
The humiliating practice of punitively cutting hair is still part of everyday life, Wangpaisit said. According to him, three to four cases a week are reported to his organization in which teachers cut students’ hair against their will. Reports accumulate at the beginning of the month and at the beginning of the semester, when inspections are carried out in schools.
Education Minister Trinuch Thienthong described the violent cutting of the 100 children as inappropriate, but also said the teacher meant well. An investigation into the incident has been ordered. Teachers should not impose humiliating punishments. “Nowhere in the rules is there a provision that allows teachers to take the law into their own hands and cut the students’ hair themselves,” said the minister.
regulations from the 1970s
Thai haircut rules date back to the military dictatorship in the 1970s. For decades, high school and college students were instructed to maintain a military-style haircut, while school girls were not allowed to wear their hair longer than the earlobes. The rules were relaxed in 2020, although students were not allowed to wear their hair beyond the nape of their necks and perms, dyes, mustaches or beards were still prohibited.
Students were allowed to keep their hair longer if they tied it back or wore a barrette. Some local Thai news reports suggested that female students could only wear long hair with prior approval from authorities. In recent years, students have increasingly fought these rules, which they see as symbolic of a school system that prioritizes obedience over individuality and military interference.
It’s about human dignity
“We must scrap all hairstyle rules once and for all,” Wangpaisit told The Guardian, adding that hair has no bearing on learning. “It’s about the dignity of being human – that we all have rights over our own bodies and that’s just the beginning for everything else like freedom of expression, human rights and so on,” said the activist.
Former MP from the defunct Future Forward party, Kunthida Rungruengkiat, said there was an attitude among the older generation that such policies were necessary to create discipline. “Their basic belief is that in order to become a ‘good Thai’ and integrate into society, one has to follow certain rules.” Rungruengkiat said the move was overdue.
Education falls by the wayside
Thunhavich Thitiratsakul, an education policy maker at the Thailand Development Research Institute, said of the latest autonomy rule that while schools have been instructed to consult students and parents when developing a haircut policy, the reality may not be enough. “Not every school board works as it should,” said Thitiratsakul.
In fact, the level of rigor prevailing in Thai schools is high. In addition to the mandatory use of a school uniform, there is detailed information about what shoes, socks and other accessories can be worn with it. Every morning, children must gather and listen to the national anthem. Those who disagree with the teacher sometimes even have to take a beating.
The government invests a lot of money in education. But the result is often a disappointment. Most of the money is spent on teachers, who are more bureaucrats than educators. Thai students are correspondingly poor in an international comparison. Reading comprehension has been declining for years, as have English skills. The same applies to the results of Thai students in Pisa’s annual studies.