Saree to remain school attire to ‘preserve culture’

09 Nov 2022

Saree to remain school attire to ‘preserve culture’

09 Nov 2022

Minister of Education Dr. Susil Premajayantha and independent Opposition MP Wimal Weerawansa insisted in Parliament yesterday (8) that the dress code for students and female teachers in Sri Lanka must remain unchanged in order to preserve Sri Lankan culture. “A teacher is a very different character to other public employees. Children look up to teachers as role models. Therefore, their presentation is much more important than any other State employee,” said Weerawansa. He further stated that allowing students to dress based on preference was one of the many strategies that led to the downfall of the Haiti Government. “This resulted in students skipping school and no one being able to identify them because they were not in uniform.” Weerawansa contended that trade unions and non-governmental organisations are wrong to propose a more lenient dress code for students and teachers in view of the economic situation, claiming that he himself owned just one school uniform growing up. “I myself used one uniform all five days of the week. Claiming that this is inconvenient and that the Government is not being empathetic towards the same, should not change our system.” Supporting this view, Dr. Premajayantha added that there is nothing wrong with the attire that teachers wear to school, explaining further that this dress code was built on the Sri Lankan culture. He further claimed that the same statement of his addressing this issue at the Kotahena Vivekananda College was applauded by more than 200-300 women. “The saree and osariya (a way of draping the saree) are part of our culture. It is a part of our school system. We cannot and will not change this system.” He added that the Education Ministry will not be taking any action to change the dress code of teachers. The Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU), which represents over 50,000 teachers, stated earlier that if the Education Ministry does not take steps to apply the circular issued by the Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils, and Local Government Ministry, allowing female public servants to report to duty wearing comfortable and suitable clothes, instead of sarees, to teachers as well, it will take all possible measures including legal action against it. Meanwhile, the teachers’ trade unions remain divided over the level of priority to be attached to making it not mandatory for female teachers to wear sarees, with the CTU saying that it will launch a programme to get the Government to allow them to come to schools in a comfortable dress, and the Ceylon Teachers’ Service Union saying that although there is a fair need to make the saree not mandatory for teachers, their struggle will however be to force the Government to increase their salaries.

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Saree to remain school attire to ‘preserve culture’

Saree to remain school attire to ‘preserve culture’

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