Indian school asks women teachers to cover up

NEW DELHI - Female teachers at a school in the Indian city of Bhubaneswar have been told to wear aprons so that male students do not get distracted by their bodies, Indian newspapers reported yesterday.

"The unconscious exposure of a body by a lady teacher during teaching could be an object of amusement for male students inside the classroom," K.C. Satpathy, the principal of DAV Public School, was quoted in the Times of India as saying.

"By wearing an apron, the quality of teaching could improve."

Satpathy said the decision by the school in the eastern city was the result of a two-year study that showed adolescent boys in higher classes were "losing concentration" inside the classrooms of some female teachers.

Women's groups are outraged.

"Should women teachers come to classes clad in burqas?" activist Katuri Mohapatra asked the Hindustan Times.

- REUTERS