Lagos School teachers deny student registration over use of Hijab

Akin Olayemi

Two female teachers in a public senior secondary school, Okota Senior Grammar School in Isolo area of Lagos State, Mrs. Ero Philips and Mrs Akande, have denied the newly transferred SS1 female Muslim students registration as bonafide students of the school for adorning the Muslim veil, the Hijab.

The newly posted students who were formally students of Ansar-Ud-Deen Comprehensive Junior High School Okota, are not only deprived of their right by the school administrator and her accomplices but are also being attacked psychologically as the Hijab has been part of their dressings throughout their days in Junior Secondary School.

According to a statement signed by the publicity secretary of the Isolo area council, Najmudeen Mustopha Olorunwa, Mrs. Ero Philips and Mrs. Akande have been denying one of the fundamental rights of the female students since the commencement of the registration for SS1 students on Monday, 18th October, 2021.

The statement read, “Parents of the students and religious leaders in the community called the attention of the Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria in Isolo, to the incident, after vain trials to call the teachers to order. One of the parents said she was asked to register her daughter in another school, if the girl would not abide by school rules on the use of Hijab.

MSSN Isolo Area Council has received prior reports that other Muslim female students currently in SS2 and SS3 were also denied to put on their Hijab in the school and that they should always remove it right from the school gate which is contrary to the jundgement of the Court of Appeal on 21st of July, 2016. The court approved the use of Hijab in Lagos state public schools, stating that the denial of the use of Hijab in public schools is an infringement on the Muslim female students’ right.

Consequently, on behalf of the Students, their parents and religious leaders in Isolo community, MSSN Isolo area council, calls on Lagos State Government to call the school and other schools in the state where this issue is still generating fracas to order since the use of Hijab for all Muslim Students in the school is in accordance to the Court of Appeal’s judgement and they should allow the status quo to remain FOR THE SAKE OF PEACE.”

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