Women teachers of Vannivelampatti Government High School in Madurai district of Tamil Nadu made many a heads turn on Monday when they entered classrooms wearing smartly tailored overcoats. This is the new “strategy” devised by V Baskaran, school head master to save teachers from “lewd gazes and comments” of the students.
One cannot blame Baskaran for the “initiative” since some of the incidents reported from schools in Tamil Nadu were neither inspiring nor encouraging. A high school in Chennai saw one of the students stabbing to death his class teacher in broad day light in the classroom in front of his colleagues. There were physical attacks on women teachers in schools by teen aged students. A Chennai school also saw a class ten student eloping with his teacher. last academic year saw a class ten student tying the nuptial knot with his mathematics teacher ten years senior to him.
There were complaints from a section of teachers about the disturbing looks thrown at them by some of the boys in Classes IX and X. The year 2012 saw the department of education issuing directives to district education officials as well as principals of schools to ensure teachers adhere to appropriate dress code.
There was a furore all over the State with teachers and social activists asking the officials to make it clear what was the appropriate dress. The controversy died a natural death as there was no further follow up action to the directive. The instruction of Madurai school head master has brought the issue back to the centre stage with educationists and veteran teachers themselves blasting the new move.
“We are proud that we are the first school in the State to introduce dress code to teachers and that too in a government school,” said Baskaran. Some of the teachers too expressed their satisfaction over the dress code.
But a veteran teacher in Chennai told The Pioneer that the move would affect the quality of teaching.