Surat govt schools’ new code for teachers, heads: Uniforms

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Further, on the reasons for implementing this dress code for the municipal school teachers, Makhecha added, “To give them a different identity which will give them a stronger sense of pride in being associated with the municipal schools. This will also leave a positive impact on the students’ and their parents’ minds as against private schools.”

The decision was taken last week by a special 17-member committee constituting all 14 members of the school board, along with school board chairman and vice-chairman, two male and female teachers. “It took several meetings for the committee to decide on this dress code. While deciding the uniform for males was an easy task, it took longer to decide the females’ uniform,” revealed one of the committee members.

Out of a budget of Rs 320 crore, recently approved for the school board by the Surat municipal corporation for the academic session 2015-16, Rs 40 lakh has been specifically earmarked for teachers’ uniform.

This rule will apply to all the 3,600 teaching staff at 318 total municipal schools with a student strength of over 1.58 lakh under Surat Municipal Corporation School Board, being run in seven different languages — Gujarati, Hindi, English, Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Oriya.

Already, as the debate on a uniform dress code for teachers has been disputed at various quarters, these uniforms will be provided by the SMC school board to the entire teaching faculty which will procure them through tenders.

The tendering will be done in a couple of days, said the school board officials. As already reported by The Indian Express in July 2014, the five-member committee, constituted by the Gujarat education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama in June last year, had recommended a uniform dress code for both male and female teachers in its report submitted in July, 2014. The report had suggested a uniform dress code for male and female teachers, stressing to put a ban on casuals like T-shirt and jeans.

This five-member committee was constituted during a meeting, headed by the education minister, of all municipal school board chairman, zila panchayat presidents, district education officers (DEO) and district primary education officers (DPEO) at the Gujarat Council of Educational Research and Training (GCERT) in Gandhinagar on June 6.

This was soon after the 2014 state board results were declared. The report on reforms in primary education were listed under six various heads. “Uniform dress code” for teachers was one such recommendations under the “code of conduct for teachers”.