I was sharing my old photos with our recent house guest (who went off last weekend), and she commented that my old school uniform was very nice! Well, I will never consider the uniforms of our local schools as nice, since they look about the same for a lot of schools.
Actually what is the concept of a uniform anyway? Students here all need to wear uniforms for schools, unless they are tertiary students. From what I know, in Japan, only secondary or high school onwards will the students need to wear uniforms. And I always like the Japanese high school uniforms - the sailor suit. Otherwise, it will be the western dress of top, bottom, vest, tie and jacket.
If I am not mistaken, in the West (America and Australia at least), only private or boarding school students need to wear uniforms. Students from the public schools can wear anything they like, as long as it is within regulations. The Australian private school uniform also comprises of a Western suit, and the uniforms are not cheap - about $100 or so for one set! Plus, there are different uniforms for summer and winter.
If the local students must have a uniform, can the uniform not be nicer? Most of the uniforms here comprise of a normal shirt (or blouse) and pants (or skirt). The skirt can be pleated or A-line, but the design is the same - plain. No floral prints, the most checks or stripes. Most school uniforms comprise of a white top and navy blue bottom. For boys, most uniforms are white throughout, which makes people hard to differentiate just exactly which school he comes from, especially since the school badges are so small.
Can the school or designers not be more creative, especially since uniforms are to be worn almost everyday and for the duration of the students' time in the school? Afterall, if one is to wear a school uniform, one will like to wear a nice one that he / she is not ashamed to show. I believe students will like to go to school, wearing the uniform proudly, rather than dreading about wearing the stupid uniform again!
Besides the design, some of the uniform's colours are also left to be desired. I ever came across a school where the uniform is bright red (not maroon or cerise, but crimson, the colour of blood!) for the top, and faded grey for the bottom. Odd combination. I seriously wonder how the students feel about having to wear the uniform for a few years.
A friend of mine went into a school where the uniform is green. It is one of the better girls' schools, and the uniform has a grass green blouse and emerald green pinafore. She complained about looking like a frog everyday. Yet, when she went into junior college, she chose a school where the uniform is also green, olive green top and bottom. I guess the school is near her place, and besides, it is one of the top five. So for almost the whole of her teenage life, she ended up "looking like a frog" almost everyday.
For a large part of my life, I had to wear the pinafore, the uniform of all convent schools. It consists of a white blouse, and a sea blue pinafore, with a pleated skirt, complete with a sea blue belt. We girls will wear the belt quite low on our waists, then puff out a bit of the pinafore above the belt, making the skirt appear a bit shorter (and higher up our knees). That is the fashion of how convent girls wear their uniforms. Any student who wears the belt the normal way, and pulls the pinafore skirt all the way down without puffing any out, is either a freshman, first time attending a convent, or an alien.
The only way to differentiate between the primary and secondary uniform is the school badge. The primary school badge is bigger, and the metal or steel badge is shinier, as if there is a layer of gloss on it. The secondary school badge is smaller, sleeker, and with a colour strip on top, to represent the house colour. It is duller as compared to the primary school badge, as there is no trace of any shine on it. Some convents have cloth badges sewn on the left top side of the pinafore.
My uniform is nothing really nice, but I must admit, it is at least better than a lot of other schools. At least I prefer this uniform to the other one I had, the one I wore for a brief period of my life. That uniform consists of a beige top and beige A-line skirt. The material is not absorbent, so I always became very uncomfortable whenever I started to perspire. Plus, the skirt is made of a thicker material, so I ended up rather hot and stuffy. The only nice thing is the red jacket, and striped tie, where only the priviledged few got to wear.
But the uniform I like the most is that of the prefectorial committee back in secondary school. It consists of a full white ensemble - white long-sleeve blouse (but the sleeves are often folded up), white A-line skirt, white and dark blue diagonal striped tie, a dark blue jacket, and black heels. The full white attire and tie is only worn on Mondays for the school assembly, but the tie has to be worn everyday with the pinafore.
The full ensemble, together with the jacket and heels, are only worn during school functions, guests visits, or the annual swearing of the prefect's oath. And only those in the prefectorial committee (not the normal prefects) are entitled to the full ensemble. So when I wore the full ensemble, I felt so proud and honoured, even though I only had the chance to wear it twice.
Should schools then abolish the uniform and let the students come in whatever attire they like? One thing about uniforms is that it does not cause so much distress as to what to wear for the day, especially for the older kids who are getting to be vain and refuse to be seen in anything that has already been seen by all. So thinking of what to wear everyday can be a chore.
On the other hand, if the student happens to be in a school where the uniform is of an awful design with an even more awful colour, he / she may not even be inclined to go to school anymore, just so as not to wear "that awful thing" out on the streets. But in the local context, is it feasible to abolish uniforms totally?
