No ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’ in Schools, only ‘Teacher’: Kerala Child Rights Commission

Thiruvananthapuram: Students will no more call out ‘sir’ or ‘madam’ in Kerala schools. Irrespective of gender, students will call their teaching faculty as ‘teacher’.

Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KSCPCR) directed all the schools of the state to address school teachers, irrespective of their gender, as ‘teacher’ instead of ‘sir’ or ‘madam’.

‘Teacher’ is a more gender-neutral term, while ‘sir’ or ‘madam’ is gender oriented honorific term.

On Wednesday, a bench of KSCPR headed by its chairperson K V Manoj Kumar directed the Kerala education department to use the term ‘teacher’ in all schools in the state.

According to sources, this directive was given in relation to a plea filed by a person seeking to end the discrimination while addressing teachers ‘sir’ and ‘madam’ according to their gender.