Experts criticized the idea of ​​a single school uniform: “Talk about the unimportant”

Russian Minister of Education Sergei Kravtsov on November 16 announced plans to introduce a “single school uniform” at the legislative level.

The minister’s words seriously alarmed the public. Will children all over the country, like soldiers, go to classes in the same clothes? And what will it look like, who will decide it? There was a breath of brown school dresses with white collars from the times of the USSR and miserable gray suits of boys from the mid-70s …

“MK” dealt with authorities from the teaching community, what was meant?

Recall that the compulsory wearing of a school uniform in our country was canceled in the spring of 1994 (and in fact it was already canceled on June 1, 1992 due to the shutdown and liquidation of enterprises that produced it). After 20 years, from September 1, 2013 (in accordance with the new law), compulsory school uniform was reintroduced, but only in accordance with general rules: each school decided for itself what to wear to children.

Oleg Smolin, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Science and Higher Education, was quick to react to Kravtsov’s words, saying that “the existing norms in this area are enough.” “Now the law provides for the introduction of certain uniform requirements for school clothes, and by decision of the school council, a single uniform is also possible,” the deputy said. He also noted that the introduction of a single school uniform in the country implies additional costs for families, including those with low incomes. In this case, the state should bear these costs.

So the chairman of the St. Petersburg City Parents’ Committee, Mikhail Bogdanov, is perplexed: “The fact is that the right to establish the rules for the appearance of students has long been assigned to schools – I personally don’t see anything new here. It is difficult to understand what was meant, as long as there are no relevant administrative documents of the ministry or at least methodological recommendations.”

…Those who come from the USSR remember the brown dresses of schoolgirls with black ones on weekdays, and white aprons on holidays. Even today, many girls wear outfits stylized for them in honor of graduating from school, following the fashion for vintage. Someone remembers these dresses with trembling – “it was terrible, I was allergic to wool, and it was hot in them in the spring!”, And besides, black aprons with lace were associated with mourning.

Wealthy parents even in those days managed to distinguish their daughters from the brown mass of classmates: they sewed individual dresses to order. The gray baggy school suits of the boys, which were until the mid-70s, could disfigure anyone … Then they were replaced with a dark blue uniform of a different style. Later, as we remember, girls began to wear a three-piece suit (with a skirt) in blue.

As MK found out from their parents, many schools in the capital now have a dress code, somewhere not at all strict. “We allow both boys and girls to go to classes, and even in jeans. The main requirement is a dark bottom, a light top. The main thing is that there are no flashy and inappropriate items of clothing for a child, ”says the mother of seventh-grader Nastya.

The winner of the competition “Teacher of the Year of Russia-2020”, a mathematics teacher from the Rostov Lyceum of classical elite education, Mikhail Gurov, told MK how things are with the student uniform in their region:

– In most schools in the Rostov region, there are quite strict requirements for the appearance of students. It is necessary that the children be neatly dressed in sets of clothes arranged according to the principle of a black bottom and a white top, hair is collected, and there is no defiant makeup.

In my school, which, however, belongs to the private segment, students attend classes in blue polo uniforms (t-shirts), and there are no strict requirements for the bottom. In general, I have a positive attitude towards the initiative to introduce a single uniform. Although today there is a certain “antiform lobby” among parents that believes that restrictions in appearance affect the freedom of expression of their children. But, I think, in the modern world you can find as many ways of self-expression and self-realization as you like.

And, of course, the presence of a uniform disciplines both at school and at home, especially if the child takes care of it himself. But there are fears that financing such a large-scale program may become an unbearable burden for regional budgets.

But the chairman of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Citizens’ Rights in Education, Viktor Panin, criticized the hype around this issue:

– If you say “halva”, then it will not become sweeter in your mouth. Therefore, it is necessary not to talk about the form, but still about the content. We must talk about the quality of education, about the need for those ideological, value changes that are simply overdue and already overripe, do you understand?

If we talk about school uniforms, then, let me remind you that the current laws, the regulatory framework describes everything in a clear language. Another thing is that many school leaders do not know how to use this database. The desire of the school principal or the parent community to introduce a certain dress code or requirements for school uniforms must be supported by legally significant actions, for example, by amending the Charter. But many schools don’t bother with it at all. And then there are various conflicts because of the appearance of the student.

Panin also explained that at the legislative level, it would not be possible to consolidate a “single form” throughout the country, if we imagine such a situation hypothetically:

– We still live in a market economy, and not a command-administrative economy, as it was in Soviet times. Who and on what basis will produce all this? To whom will this order be given? It will take several manufacturers to solve this problem, on the basis of tenders … I’m not talking about how many opportunities open up for corruption. What will these funds be, where will they come from, who will finance it? State or who? You cannot force parents to purchase this form. They will tell you that they have no money, relatively speaking, to feed the child, and you also offer to buy certain clothes of an unknown manufacturer, of an incomprehensible quality. We now have “Conversations about the important” as part of patriotic education, but this is a conversation about unimportant things …

…I would also like to recall in this regard the words of the honored teacher of the Russian Federation Evgeny Yamburg. In an interview with MK, he once said that a school uniform is good, but it should be easy, with the ability to combine it with other clothes, only the school emblem should be mandatory in it. “I am for school uniforms, but against unification, to bring everyone under a single standard,” Yamburg said. Teachers, in his opinion, in principle have no right to scold schoolchildren for their appearance: “I find it funny when teachers chase a child for dyed hair, because it is important that the student has in his head, and not on his head! It’s time to finally understand that the world is changing. We need to do business, develop the guys. They already live in an open world. And it is impossible to go forward with your head turned back.”