Neither girls nor boys will be allowed to wear earrings or piercings to school, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo announced today.

Bartolo said the ban had nothing to do with gender equality issues and instead was being done for health and safety reasons. The ban was effective immediately.

The ban comes just days after a major controversy last week when a mother took Malta’s education system to task for discriminating against her son by not allowing him to wear earrings…. even though, technically, neither boy nor girl students were allowed to wear earrings under Maltese regulations.

Pointing out that many schools allowed girls to flaunt the rules, but not boys, the mother called it a “discrimination of the highest level”.

Do you agree with the earring and piercing ban among Maltese students?

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