Friday, October 21, 2011

School Uniforms

Waise to there are many things that bug me about school uniforms including the concept itself (The uniform mafia etc) but its a reality that we will continue to use school uniforms.

But at least lets make them wearable and liveable

Had written a entry on uniforms of traffic cops (Read it here). Now let me get to the school uniform.

Shoes - As with the traffic cop analogy of how he is going to run...I think its high time we do away withe black leather hard sole shoes...in which a kid cant run or play football. How about simple sport shoes with walkable soles...in which the kid can run or play football and there is no hassle of polishing shoes (for which kids are often reprimanded)


Pants - Why do we require formal pants on a daily basis...why dont we get to track pants, which are more comfortable. It wont even require a school belt...which is an added cost. Saw a kid from GD Goenka going to school this morning...was wearing a capri kind of pant...couldnt stop but click a picture of him. I dont know if it was their sports uniform or house uniform but it was peppy and made the kid look like a kid. See it below


Shirt - No average teenager or pre-teen likes to wear a shirt. Its so cumbersome. Why not have a T- shirt instead. I know schools have house uniforms with t-shirts...but thats only once or twice a week. Why invest so much in two types of uniforms - house and the regular. A T shirt does not even need to be tucked in with a track pant.


Also...it seems schools are bribed by Nirma and other washing powder companies to have white or other light shaded colour shirts. I would probably go for dark colours and bright colours - dark blue- dark grey- black and what not.

A 'Tie' is something that should be banned anyways for a tropical country like India.


Caps - Its high time the school introduced good quality school caps. Caps could help them in the sun...when they play or walk back home or wait for their bus.


There could actually be a convention on school uniforms. Let me give this idea to a friend who is in the business of making school uniforms.

Choosing streams after class X



Choosing streams after class X could be tricky. The parents want something, the kid wants something else. Even if we leave to the kid...there is a tendency to go with the peer group. If the entire peer group is going for commerce...thats where you go. Its only when you are a week -ten days into the subjects that you realise ...whether that particular stream is your cup of tea. By that time its too late to change I guess.



Manleen Ahluwalia, ex Principal of Indian School shared in a training programme that she used to give 10 days for kids to decide. They could hop classes of every stream in class XI for the first 10 days of the academic year. Once they had taken a taste they were asked to choose one stream. This is a good idea, which needs to be replicated.



Also, may be we should give it a month or so rather than just 10 days. Loss of one month of Study? - Yes! But imagine the burden on the child for his whole life then. Its ok to leave a month I guess.

School Sports room

Sports room generally are dumps...dumps of sports equipment lying in cupboards. There is nothing else to a sports room. Saw an interesting sports room at Shikar Shishu Sadan in the town of Dhampur in Western UP.

The sports room had a number of miniature models of courts of various sports - volley ball, badminton etc. Also there was a map of fielding positions in cricket. It made the room interesting. Though it hardly makes a difference if you know where the third slip is...you need to know how to take a 'catch' there. Nevertheless...it makes sports interesting.





Positions marked on a volley ball court









above positions marked on a cricket field. below- close up



May there be more innovative sports rooms