Education authorities in Gambia have moved to address a row over religious clothes at the country’s best secondary school that many worried was going to get out of hand.
Female Muslim students at St Therese’s Upper Basic school have been complaining that their bags were being searched and their veils seized before entering the school.
Veils are not allowed at the Christian-owned school and Muslim students don’t wear them in the institution’s grounds.
But reports that the female students were being harassed angered many and authorities worried that the issue could get out of hand in the Muslim-majority nation.
An investigation found that school prefects were doing the search and seizure.
The education ministry ordered the act to stop immediately and warned that it would not tolerate anyone trying to instigate religious intolerance.