What parental attitudes towards school uniforms tell us about how they view education - Ismail Mulla

There are some that argue that the six weeks should be split up more evenly across the year and there is merit to that argument.

But the one thing that the six weeks affords is plenty of time for families to get children ready for the start of a new school year.

So I am perplexed by this new trend of the school uniform dash, parents scrabbling to purchase the requisite uniform for the start of their child’s new academic year on the day before the start of school.

In recent years, I’ve seen pictures of long queues of parents with their children in tow waiting to buy uniforms and other school essentials. People have shared posts from panic-stricken parents asking where they can find the necessary clothing and equipment to avoid their child getting penalised at school on their first day back.

My question is what had they been for those 42 days that their child was at home? Could not a couple of days be spared in early August to get the necessary uniform sorted?

It’s the sort of ill-discipline that then filters through to the child. I remember as a child, our uniforms had to be sourced in the first two weeks of the school holidays. Anything later than that would set alarm bells ringing.

There is an argument that children can outgrow their uniforms quickly but my parents always brought clothing that was a few sizes up.

Nothing that a few rolls of the trouser leg and a tight belt couldn’t fix. And even factoring in growth spurts surely a few extra days is not going to lead to major fitting issues. I simply cannot fathom the brinkmanship that some people engage with when it comes to getting children school ready.

Despite starting the school year in often baggy clothes, our parents always drilled into the importance of turning out neat and tidy. Shoes would be polished, not for narcissistic social media posts, but rather as discipline to be carried into the world of work.

As a football mad young boy, those shoes would invariably end up getting scuffed, which would result in a scolding and the boot polish being reapplied, but it’s a lesson that remains with you for life.

One of the features of my school days was seeing teachers having to tackle children who didn’t have the right uniform with footwear being the biggest indiscretion.

It wasn’t until the school brought in a policy of forcing pupils to wear embarrassing pumps that teachers were able to exert a level of discipline.

My other half is a teacher and she tells me that inappropriate footwear is still an issue at schools. She showed me an advert from a few well known retailers of black trainers under the banner of ‘back to school essentials’.

This has created another problem for teachers with many children turning up to the classroom in said trainers pleading their innocence that they weren’t in violation of school uniform rules because they had got their trainers from the ‘back to school’ section.

In a free market, no retailer should have to be policed over trivial things like this. If not children, then parents should be able to distinguish between trainers and shoes. But some of these people are leaving it to the eleventh hour to get their children school-ready.

The lockdown, over six years ago, provided a real glimpse into how some parents view school. It is a form of day care for them. A problem to be shunted into schools.

During the height of the pandemic, when schools had to be shut, some school teachers were even reporting how children that had seldom been seen during the entire term were rocking up, their parents having decided that it was expedient to send them to school.

This isn’t about giving parents a kicking. For every careless one there are dozens of invested parents who want the best of their children. However, it seems as if some have completely abandoned even the pretence of caring about their child’s education.

There’s a lot of talk about the social contract being broken and unless these parents put in their fair share of effort in fixing it, many children will continue to be let down