What’s in a school uniform?

Whereas the debate about the possibility of getting rid of school uniforms, especially in public schools in the western world would not raise a lot of people’s eyebrows, the thought of a school without a uniform is unfathomable in the minds of Ugandans. As a matter of fact, most, if not all schools, private or public, from kindergarten to A-Level in secondary school in Uganda wear uniforms.
The uniforms mostly range from dresses, skirts and blouses, pinafores, blazers, neckties for female students to shirts and trousers or shorts, blazers and neckties for male students. The few schools that try to break away from ‘the normal’ uniform have their female students at liberty of wearing pants, but that still does not go down well with some parents. Then, a few international schools do not wear school uniforms. “To some schools, their uniform is ingrained in the school’s history that taking it away would be like taking away a part of the school. Schools such as Nabisunsa Girls School, Kitante Primary School, Nakasero Primary School, Green Hill schools, Light College Katikamu, Old Kampala SSS, Kololo SSS, have uniforms they have established over the years, so much so that if you studied at Nabisunsa, but without the uniform, it would feel like you do not actually belong,” Jaquiline Namusoke a parent, explains.
Shaping mindset
She further mentions that there are students that like or hate a given school because of the uniform. For instance her Senior One daughter insisted on joining Makerere College School (MACOS) because of the colour and design of their uniform.
“From the time she saw students from MACOS, she told me she wanted to join that school. And when I asked her why, she said the girls look smart in their orange dresses. I thought she would change her mind but she did not. That is the power a uniform possesses,” Namusoke admits.

You and I know that clothes are a major theme in society and usually, people will label you according to the way you dress, or the kind of clothes you wear, but a uniform bridges that gap. I would not like my child labelled rich or poor because of the clothes they wear to school,” Moses Kizito mentions.
Some people believe that a school uniform reduces distraction and thus improves learning. If a student wakes up without worries about what they will wear for the day, they will be more focused on schoolwork and will thus see the classroom as a serious environment.
But most importantly, education experts argue that a uniform reduces peer pressure when it comes to students’ clothes. Picture this, would students be concerned about competing in who is wearing the trendiest clothes if everybody is dressed the same? This would also reduce the financial pressure on students and parents to buy the latest clothes.
This aside, Christine Kyomuhangi says wearing a uniform makes a student stand out in society and indeed be awarded some respect and treatment. She adds that uniforms solve issues of indecency. “Imagine you have a school where students do not wear uniforms, but you also do not want students to put on skimpy clothes. If you tell them to dress decently; what may be descent to one student may not be descent to another. So, by all means, it is the uniform that strikes the balance,” Kyomuhangi says.
In his article in the Brisbane Times, Why school uniforms are as important as student laptops’, Bill O’Chee, an Australian politician, noted that, uniforms play a big role in making children love school.
“Interestingly, what most excites children going to school for the first time is usually their uniform. Every five-year-old can appreciate wearing a school uniform is a powerful rite of passage, and an equally powerful statement of belonging,” he asserts.

The misconception
However, Clifford Lwanga, a teacher and parent, says he does not understand how wearing a school uniform is connected to the learning experience. “It really does not matter whether a student wears a uniform because it has no bearing to their academics. Do we want to assume that students that go to schools which do not wear uniforms do not study?” Lwanga wonders?
And he is not alone, Teddy Mellissa Mutyaba, a teacher at St. Maria Goretti, Katende and an educationist, shares that school uniforms were a part of the colonial system. She believes that today, uniforms, like the education system are some of the things that have locked student’s minds in a box.
“That is why some students think they have to do things uniformly, like other people do them. Yet, the world of work that we are readying them for is for the most part not a place for uniformity,” she says.
She emphasises that students should be given more responsibility such as choosing what and how to dress at school so that then you get ground to groom them better on the way they should dress.
“If you want to believe that school uniforms have nothing to do with instilling decency, watch the way students dress when given a chance to do it their way. They act like tethered animals let loose,” Mutyaba states.

Striking a balance
Everything should be done in moderation to avoid extremes. In fact Godfrey Kadama, the head teacher Tender Care Pre-school, Nyanama, advocates for a balance. “What we do for our pupils for example, is to have them wear school uniforms and then other clothes every last Friday of the month. That way, we are trying to show them that studying can happen whether you are in a uniform or not,” he says.
Additionally, Sarah Mugisha, a student at St. Mary’s Kitende, shares that she would rather students wear uniforms only during school days.
“You wear uniforms throughout the week, and for those in boarding school, casual uniforms after classes and at the weekend, which is too much. But if a child is allowed to wear uniform to class, and then other clothes after class and at the weekend would be better.”

Changing trends
Lately, schools are becoming more creative and fashionable about their school uniforms.
“More prints, fabrics, colours and designs are coming into the market and schools are adopting these more readily. For example, schools are adopting Scottish kilt prints for uniforms, the skirts are a bit shorter for some schools and dresses tighter. When it comes to colour, brighter colours are being appreciated more than dark colours which used to be common previously. Colours such as orange, lime green, red, hot pink are being used for uniforms,” Samuel Kibirige, a salesperson at Ziwa Garments Supplies, notes.

High prices
Ideally wearing a uniform is less expensive than buying a suitcases of outfits but a uniform can still be costly. Many schools have a specific supplier and everyone must go with that fabric. For instance one cannot wear just any black shorts to school just because black is the colour; it has to be the black shorts from the school supplier.
A mini survey by Daily Monitor, no school uniform was found to cost below Shs100,000 for schools in and around Kampala.
As a matter of fact, a kindergarten in Seguku on Entebbe Road, that had the lowest priced uniform was at Shs125,000 which included a dress, sportswear (shorts and T-shirt) and a pair of stockings.
The school with the highest uniform price was at Shs360,000 for girl’s uniform (two dresses, a T-shirt and wrapper for sportswear and a sweater) and Shs340,000 for boy’s uniform (two shirts, trouser, T-shirt and a sweater).
The rest of the 10 schools that we surveyed, the prices for a set of uniforms ranged between Shs135,000 and Shs300,000, a price that was almost half of the school fees in some schools.
Some schools change uniforms every after two years for continuing students which means the parent has to incur these costs which is challenging.