El Salvador has new guidance for the public school system. Karla Trigueros, the newly appointed minister of education, released the new standards. Moving forward, the Salvadoran public school system will be adopting a more militarized approach to student appearance.

Advocates in El Salvador fear the government is militarizing the public school system

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele appointed military officer Karla Trigueros as the minister of education on Friday, Aug. 15. Teachers’ unions and public school advocates openly opposed the decision to bring military rigor to the public school system. The new guidelines regulate everything about student life in public school, from greetings in the morning to appearance.

“Within the framework of strengthening discipline, order, and the personal presentation of the student community, the following guidelines are established for strict compliance,” reads the memo that Minister Trigueros posted to X (formerly Twitter).

The memo further lays out the role of principals at school. The new guidelines went into effect on Aug. 20. Now, principals have to serve as role models of “order and discipline for students, teachers, and administrative staff.”

Students must now comply with strict appearance regulations. The guidelines set forth by Minister Trigueros mandate the physical appearance and dress code of students in the public school system in El Salvador. The guidelines call on the principal and school staff to monitor students to make sure that they adhere to the “clean and orderly uniforms,” “appropriate haircuts,” and enter school “with a respectful greeting.”

People are making comparisons to dictatorships

The news has many believing that students attending public school in El Salvador will no longer be able to wear the “Edgar” haircut. The haircut is popular in the Latino community and is instantly recognizable. The shape of the haircut might not make the cut when it comes to the new regulations placed on public school students.

It is drawing comparisons with North Korea, where the leader has a list of appropriate haircuts for men and women. The direct comparison between North Korea’s hairstyle regulation to the new rules for public school in El Salvador does hit differently. Recently, Salvadoran lawmakers made major changes to the nation’s constitution. The National Assembly changed portions of the constitution that are alarming human rights activists and those fighting to protect democracy. Moving forward, there are no presidential term limits, which would allow for President Bukele to run for president indefinitely.

Looking to history, the decision to restructure the educational system was pivotal in Cuba after the 1959 revolution. Along with uniforms, the Cuban educational system changed the curriculum to focus on ideological indoctrination, particularly by focusing on revolutionary ideology.

Videos on social media already show schools turning students away over haircuts, uniforms, and greetings. The government says the move will bring order to schools plagued by violence and limited resources, according to The Tico Times. However, advocates say that El Salvador is overreaching in its regulation of public school students.