Autumn 2004 (12.3)
Page 16

Reader's Forum
Dress Code at School

One of the problems that we are facing in education has to do with dress code, or, perhaps, you might say, lack of dress code. This especially is true in relation to girls. Many girls at secondary school and the university wear skin-tight slacks, mini skirts or other types of dress that are really more suitable for discos, bars or parties. When you go to school, judging from the appearance of clothes, you really can't understand whether you're at an educational institution or one of those other places.

This creates such a problem for students, especially those who are poor, as the disparity between the rich and the poor becomes so obvious. This, in turn, can cause additional psychological burdens and pressures for poor students. In some cases, they succumb to their fate and don't even try to compete with their schoolmates.

But there are others who are not willing to admit that they are poor, knowing that they will be discriminated against. So they beg and plead with their parents to buy them the latest fashions. You can imagine what pressures this creates for poor families. No doubt, there are many arguments between children and their parents, and between husbands and wives. I'm sure that in some cases, poor students just drop out of school because of it.

In addition, the problem affects poor teachers as well. When there is so much emphasis on dressing, children from rich families don't pay as much attention to their teachers who are not dressed as well. They assume they can "buy" those teachers and compensate for not studying themselves.

It seems so many of these problems could be resolved by education administration to help minimize some of the problems that impede true learning in the educational process.

Zulfiyya Sharifli
Baku

From Azerbaijan International (12.3) Autumn 2004.
© Azerbaijan International 2004. All rights reserved.


Back to Index AI 12.3 (Autumn 2004)
AI Home | Search | Magazine Choice | Topics | AI Store | Contact us

Other Web sites created by Azerbaijan International
AZgallery.org | AZERI.org | HAJIBEYOV.com