Tyrone Marhguy, the young Rastafarian who faced controversy for being denied admission to Achimota School due to his dreadlocks, says he was not discouraged by his rejection but remained focused on his books to achieve his targets.
On Monday, December 19, Marhguy aced the West African Senior Secondary School Examinations (WASSCE), scoring an impressive 8 As.
His remarkable achievement comes after a challenging journey marked by a highly publicized school admission rejection that sparked a nationwide debate on discrimination and ultimately led to a landmark court victory for Marhguy and his fellow students.
In an interview with Caleb Kudah on Citi TV, Marhguy shared his resilience in the face of the 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.”
Describing the moment he checked his results, Marhguy said “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.”
Regarding his social life, Marhguy said he moved from being an extroverted person to an introvert because of the issues surrounding his admission but he was gradually accepted by the school community for who he was.
“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.”