Guwahati: The Assam government on Saturday issued a new dress code for school teachers, prohibiting them from wearing casual wear like jeans or t-shirts in schools. The new guidelines said men should only wear formal wear and women should wear salwar suits, sarees, or traditional mekhela-chador so that the attire reflects a sense of "decorum, decency, professionalism and seriousness of purpose" at the workplace.
As per the orders by the Governor of Assam, the Department of School Education has issued a notification to the teachers to strictly follow certain rules while coming to school. As per the notification, all male teachers from now onwards should attend their duties in 'formal attire' only, like formal shirts and pants. The notification prohibited 'casual attire' such as t-shirts and jeans for teachers. And women have been allowed to wear salwar suits, sarees or mekhela-chador and not t-shirts, jeans and leggings.
The notification said, “It has come to the notice that some teachers of educational institutions are found in the habit of wearing the dress of their choice which sometimes does not appear to be acceptable by the public at large. Since a teacher is expected to be an example of all sorts of decency, especially while discharging their duties, it has become necessary to follow a dress code, that should reflect a sense of decorum, decency, professionalism and seriousness of purpose at the workplace.”
The notification also said that both the men and women teachers should be dressed in clean, modest and decent clothes in sober colours, which should not look flashy. It also barred the wearing of casual and party apparel.
Speaking with media persons, Assam Minister of Education Ranoj Pegu said, “We have come up with a rulebook for all our schools which talks about how the school is to be managed, how the classes are to be conducted and this school rule book contains one section, that the teachers should be dressed decently and properly and they should wear formal dress. For students we have uniforms, so the teachers should also wear formal dress and come to the school.”
The notification asked the teachers to comply with the guidelines on the new dress code scrupulously and any deviation from it may invite disciplinary action as per the rules.