Bihar schools get a dress rehearsal: Formals in, jeans and DJs out

• Bihar has directed teachers and non-teaching staff to wear formal attire during teaching and office hours.

• The education department has flagged continued use of jeans and T-shirts despite earlier instructions.

• DJs and disco programmes are out; dignified dance and music events tied to the academic calendar remain permissible.

Bihar’s education department has a fresh lesson for school staff: dress formally, maintain decorum and keep the DJ console away from campus celebrations.

Education Minister Mithlesh Tiwary said on Saturday that his department had directed educational institutions across the state to strictly enforce a formal dress code for teachers and non-teaching employees. DJs and disco entertainment on campus, he said, were also off the timetable.

The instructions were reiterated in a letter issued on Friday by Vijay Kumar Pandey, the department’s director of administration. District officers have been asked to ensure that staff wear formal attire during teaching and office hours.

The department said earlier directions on dignified conduct and discipline were not being followed widely enough. Reports of employees arriving in jeans and T-shirts had evidently failed the official dress test.

Teachers as role models — wardrobe included

Speaking to PTI, Tiwary said students look up to teachers, making their behaviour, conduct and clothing important.

Invoking “Vidya Dadati Vinayam”, meaning education instils humility, the minister emphasised the need for discipline within school premises.

The department’s letter expressed concern that casual clothing continued to feature in staff wardrobes despite previous instructions. It directed teachers and non-teaching employees to attend work in decent, dignified and formal attire.

The latest communication reiterates that requirement without setting out a detailed list of approved garments.

Music can stay, but the DJ must go

Campus entertainment has also come under scrutiny. The department flagged reports of DJ performances, disco and programmes it described as “low-tier entertainment” being organised on school premises.

Such activities, it said, harm the academic environment and diminish the dignity of educational institutions and the teaching profession.

That does not mean the curtain has fallen on cultural events. Dance and music programmes remain permissible on special occasions specified in the academic calendar, provided they meet the department’s standards of discipline and dignity.

The distinction, then, is between an approved cultural programme and a campus turning into a dance floor — with district education officers tasked with enforcing the rules.

A courtroom citation for the staffroom

To underline its argument for formal clothing, the letter also referred to the requirement for formal dress when appearing before the Supreme Court and the Patna High Court in contempt proceedings.

It cited the need to uphold the majesty of law — an unusually judicial reference for a circular addressing school attire.

For Bihar’s teachers and non-teaching staff, however, the immediate instruction is straightforward: report to work formally dressed. District education officers have been directed to ensure strict compliance, leaving jeans, T-shirts and DJ-led celebrations outside the department’s preferred school routine.

With IANS inputs