Time to scrap school uniforms, says Democrat

Mallika Boonmeetrakool Mahasook, a Democratic Party member and founder of Mallika Foundation, proposed abolishing the compulsory wearing of uniforms in every public school.
“Every year, before the start of the new academic year in May, we always see news of parents struggling with the financial burden of having to buy expensive student uniforms; some parents line up in front of pawn shops to borrow money for purchasing their children’s new uniforms,” Mallika said.

She pointed out that the main reason for this problem was because all public schools enforced the rule that their students wear uniforms, so most families had to spend on this set of clothing every year.
“Since wearing a student uniform does not improve a student’s academic performance, I suggest that the Education Ministry scrap the rule requiring the wearing of uniforms in public schools. If they are allowed to wear appropriate dresses, it would save their parents this annual financial burden,” she said.
“This is not an era where poor students have to suffer humiliation. We should end the perpetuation of wrong social norms that judge people on the clothes they wear at schools.”
She also urged schools to pay more attention to enhancing the quality of teaching than focusing on students’ uniforms, as the two have no correlation.