Female Students Ordered to Cover: Makassar, Sulawesi

When I was at school in Australia I had to wear a uniform as well as the female students. Mind you, some of the female students liked to have their skirts rather short much to the consternation of teachers.

Nowadays it is anything goes from what I have seen of students in the streets. But if you were a female student in Makassar in south Sulawesi then you would surely incur the wrath of not only teachers and principals but also that of local authorities.

Incoming female high school students in Makassar, South Sulawesi, have been ordered to leave their leg-baring short skirts in the closet to avoid attracting unwelcome attention. The Makassar Mayor has issued a circular requiring students to don long skirts to ensure they maintain decent conduct and to prevent inviting sexual harassment.

This obligation is obviously to improve their morality and behaviour!. The Mayor said he was fed up with the way young women behaved and he wanted them to wear decent clothes at school and hope that their parents support this policy at home.

The new dress code has divided the local community, with the enthusiasm of proponents met by opposition from groups who say the requirement restricts the students' freedom of movement and distracts from more pressing problems in education.

The Mayor then went on to argue that the policy was formulated based on actual conditions in society, such as female students wearing short skirts while riding motorbikes with men which, he said, exposed their private parts. He said another reason for its issuance was the high incidence of sexual harassment of underage female students.

Initially the policy is applicable only to new students while those in their second and third years of high school are allowed to use their ordinary uniforms. It will be applied to all students gradually.

The policy has been warmly welcomed by some educators. Head of the local junior high school principals association, Saleh Rugaya, said it was expected to help reduce the crime rate, especially sexual harassment at schools. He said that all junior high schools in Makassar were ready to adopt the new regulation if it was extended to their institutions.

"The policy is positive, we would agree to apply it" he said.

But others consider the dress code is restrictive and are balking at enforcing it. That's what I like to hear, student revolution!.