School uniforms in Myanmar
School uniforms in Myanmar, also called the White-Green (Burmese: အဖြူအစိမ်း) is named after the colour code of uniforms of both public school students and teachers in Myanmar. The uniform rule was mandated in 1966.[1][2] Non-state schools and private schools are excluded from the mandate and can have their own uniforms.
The White-Green consists of a white yinbon eingyi and green htamein for girls and a white eingyi (dress shirt), Pinni taikpon eingyi and green pahso for boys.[3] It was originally the uniform of Myoma Co-Educational National High School Rangoon.
![](../I/Myanmar_Basic_Education_Students_in_Uniform.jpg.webp)
History
Before 1966, each school in Burma had its own uniform.
![](../I/Asia_MyanmarBurma_Nov_2010.jpg.webp)
In 1965 and 1966, all non-state schools (private, missionary, national, vernacular, special, etc.) were nationalized[4] and became State Schools. On 14 February 1966, the Revolutionary Government Educational Department mandated all students and teachers in all of Burma to wear the same uniforms.[1]
Public school uniforms (White-Green)
Type | Wearer(s) | Male | Female |
---|---|---|---|
Primary school students | Students: Kindergarten, 1st Standard, 2nd Standard, 3rd Standard, 4th Standard. | Top: white dress shirt Bottom: green pants Footwear: shoes or male Burmese sandals | Top: white blouse Bottom: green skirt with or without green pants (There are many variants with mixed designs) Footwear: shoes or female Burmese sandals |
Both students and teachers | Students: 5th Standard, 6th Standard, 7th Standard, 8th Standard, 9th Standard, 10th Standard. Teachers: All. | Top: white dress shirt Bottom: green pahso Footwear: male Burmese sandals | Top: white Burmese blouseBottom: green htamein. Footwear: female Burmese sandals |
Typical for teachers
|
Students: All (only for formal wear). Teachers: All | Top: white dress shirt with mandarin collar and (usually white) taikpon Bottom: green pahso Footwear: male Burmese sandals | Top: white Burmese blouse and green scarf Bottom: green htamein Footwear: female Burmese sandals |
White dress shirt
The white dress shirt of White-Green uniform has 4 variations.
Collar:
- With an English collar
- With a mandarin collar (ကော်လံကတုံး)
Sleeves:
- With short sleeves (လက်တို lit. 'short hand')
- With long sleeves (လက်ရှည် lit. 'long hand')
White Burmese blouse
The white Burmese blouse in White-Green uniforms has 6 variations:
Opening:
- Buttoned at the front (ရင်စေ့ lit. 'chest closing')
- Buttoned at the side (ရင်ဖုံး lit. 'chest covering')
Sleeves:
- With short sleeves (လက်တို lit. 'short hand')
- With three-quarter sleeves (လက်စက lit. 'middle-sized hand')
- With long sleeves (လက်ရှည် lit. 'long hand')
Green colour
These are the common variations of green used in school uniforms:
Primary school girls' uniform design
![](../I/PrimaryUniform.jpg.webp)
The uniform for primary school girls has many variations in designs and styles.
Taikpon
Common colour variations for taikpon used in schools include:
• White
• Pinni(ပင်နီ)
• Latte
Burmese sandals
Burmese sandals (lit. 'clip footwear') are the most popular footwear in combination with traditional White-Green uniforms. There are two variations: lacquer and velvet.
Lacquered sandals are usually either black or brown. Velvet sandals vary in colours.
Embroidered patches
Almost all public schools (except TTC Yangon) require that the school's name and badge be embroidered or sewn into the uniform, either on both sleeves or on the left side of the chest (above the pocket for the shirts). Usually, the name of the grades or standards and the class or section are also embroidered or sewn into the uniform on the left side of the chest. Embroidered patches are only on the students' uniforms, not the teachers'.
Pin badges
An exception is the Practising High School Kamayut (TTC), which does not use embroidered patches. TTC students wear pin badges.
In all public schools, teachers wear a pin badge of the school's badge together with the school's name. Often, they also wear a pin of appointment.
Uniforms of public universities and colleges
Not all universities require uniforms. Uniform rules vary according to each university or college. Many do not require uniforms.
Universities, institutes, and colleges that require uniforms
Universities of Education (UOEs), Education Colleges (ECs), Education Degree Colleges (EDCs), and Universities for Development of National Races (UDNR) use the traditional White-Green uniforms. Students at these institutions are pre-service trainees to become school teachers.[5]
Universities of Nursing (UONs) use the White-Red[6] uniform of Nursing in Myanmar.
The students' uniforms at Technological Universities (TUs) are white shirts and blue-black pahso for boys, and white blouses and blue-black htamein for girls.[7] General Technological Institutes (GTIs) used the same uniforms before 2016, after which their uniform became white shirts and black-blue trousers for both genders.[7]
The uniforms for students of the Universities of Computer Studies (UCSs) are white shirts and blue pahso for boys, and white Burmese blouses and blue htamein for girls.[8]
The uniforms of Myanmar Aerospace Engineering University (MAEU) are white shirts with sky blue neckties and stylepants for boys, and white shirts and khaki skirts for girls.[9]
Students at Myanmar Maritime University (MMU) and Myanmar Mercantile Marine College (MMMC) wear the uniforms of Myanmar seafarers, in addition to a necktie.
Universities and colleges that do not require uniforms
In 2004, a dress code was imposed for university and college students to wear a white shirt/blouse and longyi (pahso/htamein). T-shirts and jeans were banned.[10] This dress code was later loosened.
Uniforms of private schools, universities, and colleges
in 1965 and 1966, the socialist Revolutionary Government nationalized all private schools,[4] which once had their own uniforms. The government made the White-Green the uniform of all schools starting in 1966.[1]
The Ministry of Education of the SPDC Government were allowed to open private schools starting in 2010.[11] The new private schools can use either the White-Green uniform or any uniform of their own style.
References
- စံပြဗဟုသုတဘဏ် [Standard Knowledge Bank] (in Burmese). Vol. 1. စံပြစာတည်းအဖွဲ့. 1970. p. 42.
- "Myanmar Times & Business Reviews". Archived from the original on 19 May 2006. Retrieved 3 September 2010.
- ဒေါက်တာသန်းဦး (2020). "နှစ်တစ်ရာပြည့် မြို့မအမျိုးသားကျောင်း" [One Hundred Years Old Myoma National School]. Myanmar Digital News (in Burmese).
- Thet Ko Ko (2020). "The Day Myanmar's Socialist Govt Nationalized Missionary and Private Schools".
- Joanna Washington (2017). "အရည်အချင်းပြည့် ဆရာ ဆရာမများ မွေးထုတ်လိုလျှင်" [If want to cultivate skillful teachers]. Myanmar Times.
- Ei Shwe Phyu (2017). "A review of education sector in 2017". Myanmar Times (in Burmese).
- TU Arkar Min; နောင်ခန့်(မော်လမြိုင်) (2016). "မော်လမြိုင် GTI ကျောင်းတွင် ကျောင်းဝတ်စုံပြောင်းလဲ သတ်မှတ်လိုက်သော်လည်း မော်လမြိုင် TU တွင် အစီစဉ်မရှိသေးဟုဆို" [Despite Mawlamyein GTI changed its uniform, Mawlamyein TU don't have any plan]. Thanlwintimes (in Burmese).
- "UCSMTLA IT CAMP 2018". University of Computer Studies,Meiktila (in Burmese). University of Computer Studies,Meiktila. 2018.
- မင်းထက်ပြည့်စုံ (2018). "လေကြောင်းနှင့်အာကာသ တက္ကသိုလ်(Myanmar Aerospace Engineering University)". ပန်းတိုင် map (in Burmese).
- "New Dress Code for Burmese Students". The Irrawaddy. 2004.
- Ahunt Phone Myat (2009). "Burma to open private schools and hospitals".