The school uniform prompt took me back to the era where I was a fresher in the Senior High School. I had a relatable experience about this.
For the first few months, all freshers were allowed to wear casual wears which was popularly nicknamed as "mofty" contrary to the uniforms every other student was obliged to put one.
In an interesting twist of events, our uniforms consisting of those for class, those we were after class called house wears, the house jerseys were not ready for first years.
The class uniforms alone were about four. Those for Monday Tuesday, one for Wednesday, another for Thursday and the last for Friday.
As freshers wanting to get into the spirit of wearing our uniforms for the first time, our excitements were squashed for a couple of months.
Now here comes the catch, imagine a girls school, boarding house for that matter where we were allowed to bring our moftys to school, was such a wild card.
Unbeknownst to some like myself, most came with the coolest clothes they had. Whereas the conservatives with me being number one ,came with the "awoyo" ( full gown worn by pastors) kind of cloths.
In my defense, my grandma selected my cloths so I had no option being cool- clothed😁.
Here comes the interesting part, from orientation to classroom sessions, you could see the the different types of casual wears ranging from skirts, jeans, t-shirts/blouses, dresses and many more.
The nice cloths were especially spotted and those of us that went with cloths like we were going for church retreat, were spotted too.
Truth be told, I felt uncomfortable in most cases because I felt my cloths did not pass for the coolest clothes.
I called home for my grandma to bring new set of cloths based on my taste, unfortunately, my old girl did not hear a word of it. She told me I was there to learn and to to compete for a fashion show.
So on and on, we continued in our blended cool and uncool cloths until our uniforms came.
What a relief it was the day the uniforms came!
On the Monday we wore the uniforms, we never stopped talking about it. We finally felt we were students.
Do I stand for or against school uniforms?
From my personal experience, I strongly stand for the continuing use of school uniform.
Some of the importance of schools using uniforms are;
- it reduces unnecessary peer pressure
- bullying will be minimised for either wearing or not wearing cool cloths
- students will have undivided attention for their books as they wouldn't have the weight of not having the nicest cloths pressurising them
- safety is assured to a certain extent as uniforms give identity and students can be noticed anywhere in them .
I am for team uniform.