Tyrone Marhguy, a teenage Rastafarian who caused controversy after he was turned away from Achimota School because of his dreadlocks, claims he wasn’t deterred by the rejection and instead kept his attention on his books in order to reach his goals.
Marhguy received an astounding 8 As on Monday, December 19, in the West African Senior Secondary School Examinations (WASSCE).
His incredible accomplishment follows a difficult road that included a widely reported school admission refusal that triggered a national conversation about discrimination and ultimately resulted in a historic court victory for Marhguy and his fellow pupils.
In an interview with a media house, Marhguy shared his resilience in the face of rejection.
“I don’t know if it was supposed to [be] but what I told myself was that, that was not the time. Because I know that certain things can be changed. If you sit around telling yourself this and that, do you want to cry or what? That was one. And I also think that the support from my parent and family was very essential.”
When Marhguy saw his results, he described it as follows: “At the point of checking, I was like maybe I should check this alone and then later I could process and tell them. But I could tell from the eyes that I didn’t even try.
“We kind of pride ourselves on the schools we went to so they will come and tell you some guy from my school that Bencher got 8As. So they came to call me and when I went, they were all ready and cameras were on.”
“Even in the BECE I kind of write the scores I think I will get and then hope to get because I wrote it. So to be honest I got 7As there was a B somewhere, English.”
In terms of his social life, Marhguy claimed that due of the problems surrounding his admittance, he went from being an extroverted person to an introvert, but that he was eventually welcomed for who he was by the school community.
“Within the school, one thing I couldn’t do was go to the dining hall. I grew into the Achimota community because we see you and yes we acknowledge unlike first who is the rasta guy. I am not an introvert.”
He further said he was considering studying either Computer Science, Computer Engineering or Electrical Engineering at the tertiary level.
“In terms of Ghana, it is Ashesi, it is Academic City. In terms of courses, it is Computer Science or Computer Engineering or Electrical Engineering. I also like Columbia, Harvard, MIT and then Cornell.”
Source: Marzuuq Issah | Ghana360news.com
