Opinion
Teachers’ dress code and gender-bias reality
Every now and then there is something in the public domain that diverts people from their woes temporarily. This time round it happens to be the female teachers’ dress code – its supposed cultural significance and educative role in schools. Saris are said to inculcate ‘discipline’ in students, and so any hint of deviation from it is summarily dismissed. However, there is no insistence that the male teachers should wear the corresponding cultural dress, which is the national dress (jathika anduma), for the purpose of disciplining students.
The implication is that the western dress, when it sits on male teachers, is quite ‘proper’ and exerts the same disciplining influence on the students as the sari is supposed to do. However, the very same western dress (trousers and blouse) is supposed to exert a corruptive influence on students if female teachers choose to wear it instead of the sari. It seems that culture has a way of hiding such obvious incongruities under an accumulated ‘authority’ and self-righteousness.
It is hard to imagine the basis for not allowing the female teachers to wear any other suitable dress except the sari. For one thing, wearing the sari is undoubtedly the most time-consuming and frustrating morning chore of a teacher if you happen to be a female. It seems that males are exempt from carrying the burden of exhibiting our culture. That’s gender equality for you!
For another, if all that hassle is for the sake of appearing ‘decent’ to set an example for the students, sari has nothing more decent about it than the trousers and anybody can wear it in a jiffy. If covering the whole body is the criteria for measuring propriety in dress as, far as our culture goes, surely the western dress that both men and women wear is far more decent than a dress six yards long, which you have to painstakingly wrap around you only to leave a fair portion of your trunk exposed. How about a male teacher coming to school with his shirt trimmed from the bottom to look like a jacket (hattaya) in terms of height, exposing his midriff? Indecent? Seriously? Pray, what is so indecent or anti-cultural about a man’s exposed waistline, the same stretch of skin, which is supposed to be part of our cultural uniqueness the moment the relevant area belongs to a woman?
Sadly, culture is often restrictive, if not repressive, rather than liberating. The very word “culture” is loaded with conformism. It is a structure built on the representations of almost everything that we think, say and do within a community with established norms, and often it provides accepted models for the individuals to conform to, for the tacit acceptance of society. This means that there is an inevitable clash between culture and new thinking, because humans tend to constantly push boundaries and move towards progress. Theodor Adorno, thinker and leading member of a group of critical theorists known as the Frankfurt School, has this to say about culture: “That which is specifically cultural is that which is removed from the naked necessity of life” (The Culture Industry). Necessity, which is said to be the mother of invention, can also be the mother of useful cultural changes.
Insisting that female teachers wear the sari, and no other dress, can do precious little to preserve our so called “culture”, which is mistakenly or perhaps expediently conceived as an unchanging entity. Culture is continuously in transition, and every generation has a section of it that is always skeptical about the rather stagnant and irrelevant parts of its culture, whose outer layer- the more visible and ceremonial part- controls our collective instincts and social conduct. On the other end of the spectrum, there are vested interests, who find the status quo gainful, who naturally hate any changes that are likely to demystify the sanctified cultural relics that keep the average person feeling sheltered and complacent.
However, it is a fact that values, customs and rituals that are relevant at one point in time, cannot be forcibly made to appear relevant at a different point in time in a different context. Progress, science and technology that go together create culture and not the other way around. Johan Huizinga, one of the founders of modern cultural history says: “If we are to preserve culture we must continue to create it.” No matter how much eulogized and admired a component of any culture is, it cannot earn the same encomiums when the ground realities change, forcing people to shift to new situations. People are not likely to live their lives for the sake of preserving culture. As Austrian pianist and composer, Eduard Steuermann, once articulated, “The more that is done for culture, the worse it fares”.
With all due respects to our legendary musician and singer, Sunil Santha, whose well-known melody “Mihikatha Nalawala” depicting the rural belle – the idolized school teacher of pristine beauty, draped in a sparkling sari with all due adornments, leisurely walking to the village school is far too removed as a model from today’s lady teacher, who is still weighed down by the sari – notwithstanding all the duty-related, circumstantial and economic changes that have taken place in a fast changing world.
Our education authorities often wax eloquent on enhancing the students’ creativity, innovation, rationality, inculcating positive values and attitudes etc. Sadly, the talk of imposing a dress code on teachers on the basis of gender, flies in the face of all that rhetoric and, what’s more, reveals a close-minded, gender-biased attitude. That such an absolute ruling comes from the authorities of education, of all people, is lamentable. It looks as if Adorno is still relevant when he says: “Whoever speaks of culture speaks of administration as well, whether this is his intention or not”. Today, many students are well informed and sensible in their thinking, thanks to their exposure to the outside world. They might want to know why female teachers are denied the freedom enjoyed by their male counterparts with regard to their dress.
SUSANTHA HEWA
The first and only tsunami that Sri Lanka experienced was on Boxing Day(26th) of December 2004. My wife and I, as usual, went down to Modara in Moratuwa to purchase our seafood requirements of seafood from our familiar fishmonger, Siltin, from whom we had been buying fish for a long time. Sometimes we used to take a couple of friends of ours. But on this day, it was only both of us that went on this trip.
We made our purchases and were returning home and when we came up to the Dehiwala bridge, many people were looking down at the canal from both sides of the bridge. This was strange, as normally if there was something unusual, it would be on one side.
Anyway, we came home unaware of anything that had happened. A school friend of mine (sadly he is no longer with us) telephoned me and asked whether I was aware of what had happened. When I answered him in the negative, he told me to switch on the TV and watch. Then when I did so and saw what was happening, I was shocked. But still I did not know that we had just managed to escape being swept away by the tsunami.
Later, when I telephoned Siltin and asked him, he said that both of us had a narrow escape. Soon after we had left in our car, the tsunami had invaded the shore with a terrifying wave and taken away everything of the fishmongers, including their stalls, the fish, weighing scales and money. The fishmongers had managed to run to safety.
This had been about five minutes after we had left. So, it was a narrow shave to have escaped the wrath of the demining tsunami( the name many Sri Lankans came to know after it hit our island very badly}
HM NISSANKA WARAKAULLE
Sri Lanka has recorded a staggering 375 elephant deaths in the past eleven and a half months due to a multitude of causes, according to the Department of Wildlife Conservation. U. L Thaufeeq, Deputy Director – Elephant Conservation said the deaths include 74 from gunshots, 53 from electrocution, 49 from hakka patas (explosive devices hidden in food), seven from poisoning, 10 from train accidents, three from a road accident, and six by drowning. It makes such diabolical reading!
“The causes of other deaths are due to natural causes or causes that could not be identified. Most of the elephants that died were young,” the official said.
Meanwhile, the human-elephant conflict has also taken a toll on people, with 149 human deaths reported this year.
Accordingly, human-elephant conflict has resulted in 524 deaths of both elephants and humans in 2024.
In 2023, a total of 488 elephants and 184 people have died consequent to the conflict, according to Wildlife Department statistics.
The human-elephant conflict in Sri Lanka has escalated to unprecedented levels with reasons like habitat destruction, encroachment, and the lack of sustainable coexistence measures contributing to the issue.
This is an indictment of the Wildlife Department for just giving the sad yearly statistics of shocking losses of our National treasures !
Given the fact that Sri Lanka boasts of 29.9% of the country declared as protected forests, Sri Lanka is a haven for nature lovers. Boasting 26 national parks, 10 nature reserves including 3 strict nature reserves, and 61 sanctuaries, the national parks in Sri Lanka offer an incredible variety of wildlife experiences.
Taken in that context, the million dollar question is why on earth the Wildlife Department is not being proactive to capture these magnificent animals and transport them into protected sanctuaries, thus effectively minimising dangers to villagers ?
Being a Buddhist country primarily, to turn a blind eye to these avoidable tragic deaths to mankind and wild elephants, we should be ashamed !
As a practising Buddhist myself, I think our clergy could play a major part in calling upon the Wildlife Department to get their act together sooner rather than later to protect human elephant conflicts !
Sri Lanka being a favourite destination amongst foreign tourists, they are bound to take a dim view of what is happening on the ground!
If the top brass in the responsible department are not doing their job properly, may be there is a case for the new President to intervene before it gets worse!
All animal lovers hope and pray the New Year will usher in a well coordinated plan of action put in place to ensure the well being of wildlife and villagers !
Sunil Dharmabandhu
Wales, UK
This has reference to the article from the Aircraft Owners and Operators Sri Lanka, titled ‘Closer look at regulatory oversight and its impact on Tourism’, published on Tuesday, 24th December 2024.To explain further, in the beginning there was the Air Navigation Act No 15 of 1950 which was followed by the Air Navigation Regulations (ANR) of 1955. This was long before the national airline had acquired pressurised aircraft, intercontinental jets, sophisticated navigation equipment, satellite communication and automatic landing systems, and ‘glass’ flight-deck instrumentation.
Today, civil aviation in Sri Lanka is governed by Civil Aviation Act Number 14 of 2010. Yet the Air Navigation Regulations (ANR) promulgated back in 1955 remain in force.
These outdated regulations still stipulate rules forbidding the carriage of passengers on the airplane’s wings or undercarriage (landing gear). In short, they are neither practical nor user-friendly. In contrast, the Air Navigation Regulations of other countries have progressed and are easy to read, understand, and implement.
To overcome the problem of outdated regulations, as an interim measure in 1969 the then Minister of Communications and Transport, Mr E.L.B. Hurulle issued a Government Gazette notification declaring that the Standard and Recommended Procedures (SARPs) in Annexes to the ICAO Convention signed by Ceylon in 1944 shall be made law.
Even so, nothing much was done to move with the times until updating of the Civil Aviation Act 14 of 2010, while the Air Navigation Regulations remained unchanged since 1955. However, these regulations were modified from time to time by the promulgation of Implementing Standards (IS) and General Directives (GDs) which were blindly ‘cut and pasted’ by the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL), from the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) Annexe ‘SARPS’ without much thought given. To date there are literally 99 IS’s starting from 2010.
The currently effective air navigation regulations are not in one document like the rest of the world, but all over the place and difficult for the flying public to follow as they are not regularly updated. This sad situation seems to have been noticed by the current regime.
The National Tourism Policy of the ruling NPP states, “Domestic air operations are currently limited due to high cost and regulatory restrictions. The current regulatory and operational environment will be reviewed to ensure domestic air connectivity to major tourist destinations. The potential of operating a domestic air schedule with multiple operators is proposed. Additionally, domestic airports and water aerodromes in potential key areas will be further developed, for high-end tourism growth.”
“The tourism policy recognises Sri Lanka’s potential to develop Sri Lanka’s aviation-based specialised tourism products, including fun flying, hot air ballooning, paragliding, parachuting and skydiving, and scenic seaplane operations. To facilitate the growth of these niche markets, existing regulations will be reviewed with the aim of attracting capable investors to develop and operate these offerings.”
It remains to be seen whether the NPP government lives up to those promises.
Note:
That OPA report talks of two funds: ‘Connectivity’ and ‘Viability’ for a limited period like three or five years to help jump-start the domestic aviation industry.
The ‘Connectivity Fund’ will cap the seat price for local passengers to a more affordable value to destinations while the ‘Viability Fund’ will assume that all seats are occupied and compensate the operator for any unutilised seat. The intention is to popularise domestic aviation as a safe, quick and convenient mode of transport.
Capt. Gihan A Fernando
RCyAF/ SLAF, Air Ceylon, Air Lanka, Singapore Airlines and Sri Lankan Airlines.
Now A Fun Flier
Two die in Sydney to Hobart yacht race
Deepti’s all-round heroics hand India series sweep
Australia maintain full control despite Jaiswal’s 82
-
Sports6 days agoPathirana set to sling his way into Kiwi hearts
-
News4 days agoOffice of CDS likely to be scrapped; top defence changes on the cards
-
News7 days agoSL issues USD 10.4 bn macro-linked bonds
-
Editorial7 days agoRanil’s advice
-
Editorial6 days agoThe games they play
-
Features4 days agoAn Absurd play in Parliament: Qualifications versus education
-
Opinion5 days agoWhat AKD and NPP should bear in mind
-
Features6 days agoThe Government’s Term Tests & Results: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly