School uniforms - do they make or mar education?
 

by S. Pathiravitana

For the first time in the history of schools in Sri Lanka, so the Lankadeepa says, an election was held among parents to choose between two types of school uniforms for girls - the square neck form or the collar with a tie. This happened in distant Wariyapola where, as legend has it, Ravana landed his famous Dandu Monara Yantharaya in Wariyapola -- our first aerodrome. There were neither schools as such nor even uniforms then, but the task of producing an educated nation went on, nonetheless, peacefully.

British educationists on introducing the girls' uniform into this country from the days of Queen Victoria, with collar, tie and all, may not, under the powerful glance of Her Royal Majesty, have been able to avoid giving it a prissy look. And for a long time we have seen hordes of these children right up to the other day almost, when the Ladies College, quite bravely, decided to come out with a smart, care free and most comfortable looking square-necked uniform for girls with a buckle on the belt representing the tie. By all looks, I thought, this was the most rational dress for a tropical country. Soon a few other girls' schools followed suit.

Square neck trend

Now, the principal of a school situated in historic Wariyapola, thinking perhaps on the same lines as I did, decided to introduce this square neck uniform to his school and made a soft landing by introducing it from the primary level. The Lankadeepa story, which is my source of information, does not say why precisely the parents objected to the proposed uniform. As the principal, apparently, had not heeded the protest, the boys and girls of the school went on a protest fast for a day or two. This resulted in the school being closed on the orders of the schools district authority.

The path to the election, however, was laid with many a Johnny batta. First there was the waylaying of the innovating principal, an undemocratic touch, indeed, by an unknown gang of people who had beaten him up so badly that he had to be hospitalised.

The District schools' authority tried to pacify the unrest among the parents by moving out the injured principal to another school in the same district. Then a meeting was called to discuss ways and means to solve this problem, but they couldn't come to a decision. As a way out of this crisis a proposal was then made to hold an election to decide on what uniform should be adopted, but no decision was taken because of too much wrangling.

Vote for your choice

Meanwhile, the new principal who was appointed to succeed the injured one was also faced with the problem of deciding on a uniform because some of the children in the lower classes had already changed to the square neck. So once again the parents were summoned to the school to decide on which uniform should be acceptable and at that point they agreed to hold an election to decide the issue. Arrangements were made to hold the election and the media unit of the Provincial Education Ministry was entrusted with the task of covering the event. On the day of voting, the voters formed early queues, as we normally do for polling on national issues, and the picture published by the Lankadeepa showed well-dressed women and men waiting patiently for their turn.

And now to do a little arithmetic. When the results were counted there were, as usual, the quota of spoiled votes and they amounted to 66.

Only 1060 votes were cast out of a total of 1751. 691 had abstained. The square necks got 334 and the collar and tie received 694. According to the head count the collar and tie had won. This victory was not too convincing when you consider that those who abstained from voting, for some reason or other, were only three votes behind the winners. And when you add that number to the number that voted for square necks you get a total of 1075 as against the winners who got only 694.

The victory of the tie and collar voters may be partly due to economics, not comfort. The change over to another form of dress means money, which many parents these days can ill afford. To go on with the existing state of affairs was, therefore, only natural. And those who abstained from voting may also have been due to a number of reasons like personal problems, indifference, annoyance, less bother and a surrender to fatalism - let any damn thing happen.

Those who are inclined to think that all this ho-ha about a uniform is too parochial a problem for serious conversation may be surprised to know that this has also international ramifications. Even in the country that introduced school uniforms to us there are signs now of moderating the stand they once took about school wear.

Central heating introduced to schools are now calling for lighter clothes, and school blazers, once compulsory wear, have been the first to disappear in summer time. A jacket is now worn in winter. In the early Nineties there was a trend towards wearing sweatshirts and polo shirts carrying the school crest in the primary schools and the habit was spreading into secondary schools too. This concession is partly to lessen the burdens of the lower classes, which cannot afford blazers.

How they do it...

They order things differently, however, on the continent. In France the state aided schools do not insist on uniforms.

More serious are the arguments now raging in the States. There was a time when America did not insist on children wearing school uniforms.

They had instead a dress code, which laid down the shoulds and should-nots about school dress. Some schools found that the absence of a uniform was creating a lot of social problems and also violence, peculiarly American and not found in our schools. Then one day the following happened: "In September 1987, the big nation wide back-to-school story focused on Cherry Hill Elementary School in Baltimore, Maryland.

Why? Its 360 students voluntarily donned uniforms, part of a community grassroot effort to cut clothing costs and curb social pressures in the low-to-middle income groups." This is from a communication issued by the Director of Information of the NAESP (National Association of Elementary Schools Principals).

It also caught the attention of many people including that of Bill Clinton. The importance of what had happened in this elementary school struck him so forcibly that he thought it fit enough to refer to this in his State of the Nation message in 1996. During that speech the President said, "If it means that teenagers will stop killing each other over designer jackets, then our public schools should be able to require their students to wear uniforms." He told those attending his speech that he had signed an order instructing the Secretary of Education to send to all school districts across the nation the newly generated Manual on School Uniforms. The manual outlines specific steps for school districts wishing to implement uniform policies.

Its an example!

He cited the example of a city that had already made uniforms compulsory for schools in Long Beach, California and how beneficial it has been in improving educational results, improvements in social behaviour, less violence and in many other things. The opponents of compulsory uniforms, however, have countered the optimism of Clinton, with evidence produced by researches done by universities and social scientists to prove that mandatory uniforms have not delivered as anticipated. I have no intention of going into a detailed exposition of these claims, both positive and negative, only wish to point out that the battle over uniform v. the non-uniform is far too detailed to be included in this brief note. All that

I should be saying is that the battle is still raging silently and furiously in the United States.

As for Sri Lanka, so far there has been no problem about uniforms, staying or going. This little skirmish that has taken place in Wariyapola is over what kind of uniform we should be accepting for our girls. Parents, even among the low-income groups, don't seem to be disgruntled over uniforms perse; they have accepted them and seem to be actually proud to put their little ones into them and see them off to school every morning in their new suits - 'Like little white herons' crossing a paddy field is how a Sinhala song describes this daily morning scene in villages.