TEACHERS and pupils may be in favour of introducing jeans to school uniforms, but parents have announced they do not agree with the plan.
Parents believe school uniforms promote discipline and team-work, while teachers and pupils think things should loosen up in public education.
Following a scheduled meeting last week, teacher’s union OELMEK decided they were in favour of pupils having the choice of wearing jeans.
“The teachers’ union’s decision suggests pupils have the choice of either wearing grey trousers or blue jeans,” said OELMEK President Iacovos Iacovou yesterday.
The teachers also suggested pupils be allowed to wear a shirt or t-shirt coloured white, blue or black. And jackets or cardigans could be coloured either blue or grey.
“The jeans should be of a specific quality and colour, as the Technical Officials of the Education Ministry have already suggested,” Iacovou explained, adding designer or other labels would not be allowed, so as to avoid unhealthy competition among pupils.
But on Monday, a company producing school uniforms visited Education Minister Pefkios Georgiades and asked him not to go ahead with the change in uniforms, at least for the coming year.
This is because they have already prepared the established uniforms and fear that if jeans are allowed, the grey skirts and trousers will remain on the shelves.
And parents are up in arms over the prospective change, as they believe it would not only cause unnecessary tension between parents and children, but would also create disciplinary problems.
“We believe that school uniforms serve many causes and we would not like the Education Ministry to change its current policy,” read the official announcement from the Pancyprian Parents’ Union.
“Maintaining the school uniform, will help rid pupils from unnecessary social fantasies and avert conflict between pupils and parents within the family. At the same time, it strengthens team work and discipline in the school.
“We believe that co-operation should continue within each school between teachers, parents and pupils, so they can have the right commonly to choose the pupils’ uniform within a specific framework, as it is done today.”
Parliament recently passed a law, which provided that each school was to resolve its problems through committee meetings of teachers, parents and pupils. This meant the Education Ministry was no longer in charge of defining each school’s dress code.
The parents had previously marked themselves put in favour of stricter policy on school uniforms and pupils’ appearance in general.
