Do state schools around the world have a complusory uniform?

[alex8]

This sort of follows on from the jogging suit thread. I asked this but only had a couple of responses. I know most UK schools do. US schools don't and also ex-british colonies like Australia do. I didn't know much about Europe or other parts of the world. I was genuinly intrested if it was a peculiarly British phenomenon or more widespread?

I know remember seeing lots of Japanese teenagers in jogging suits on school trips when I went there. Also there were lots of girls in school uniforms but that could also have been one of those fashion trends!

We live in Germany, no school uniforms here at state schools (or Catholic/Evangelical either for that matter)

no uniform in france

Zimbabwe certainly has very strict compulsory uniforms in state schools,

they do in South Africa

they don't all have uniforms here though (in London). We have a uniform at our state school but the children are allowed to wear blue tracksuit pants or shorts and a school t-shirt rather than a polo shirt if they want.

I went to the British School in the Netherlands and we were the only kids in the whole country with uniform - drew all sort of looks and sniggers from the passing Dutch I can tell you ...

Most NZ schools do - I only know of a couple that don't

I said most british schools foxinsocks not all. I supply taught for about 5 years and found about 10-20% were non uniform in my part of London. (non-scientific survey!)

So far its all ex-colonies. Interesting.

like Zim, in most SA schools it is very strict aswell. We used to have uniform inspections!

I remember we had to kneel at assembly and a teacher would come and measure with a ruler how far above the ground our skirts ended!

boys at the school I used to work at in Zim used to get sent home if they didn't have the correct uniform on - and if their hair wasn't the right length (ie reasonably short) they got into trouble for that too!!

Here in Germany they are talking about introducing a sort of uniform, think it will be just a sweatshirt and polo shirt in school colours but they are in such a mess with their school system anyway that I reckon our kids will be well out of school by the time it starts.

Think in Germany it's part of a bigger issue, kind of a backlash reaction against movements which indoctrinate youth. Kids in uniforms makes people uneasy I think, reminds them of Hitler Youth and in East Berlin the pioneer movement.

There is some discussion on this at the moment. The retiring head of an elite boarding school was reported in an interview as saying he believed school relations between staff and pupils could be improved, as well as manners and academic performance of dc generally if they were to be put in uniform again. Did read about one state school with a lot of problems that introduced basic t-shirt, sweatshirt as an elective uniform and seemed to be going down well. Can't see it happening here on a large scale though really.

Japan definitely.
I have also heard hair-raising stories from Malaysians about boys who turned up in non-regulation trousers who were caned and had said trousers confiscated so they had to walk home in their underpants!

Not in Spain, only private schools.

Oh hi admylin, crossed posts. Sorry!

not in scandinavian countries.

SSSandy, they really are thinking about it, my dh has relatives in the textile business in Bangladesh (C&A, H&M etc) and they have been asked to send samples and make offers to get contracts for school uniforms in Germany - we advised him against even bothering to send samples because it will take so long to get it all set up that the profit will take years to roll in.

A good friend of mine moved from the US to Ireland when she was 8. She found it hard to have to wear a shirt & tie plus pinafore when she had been used to going to school in shorts, t-shirt and sandals! As far as I know, state school pupils in the US still do not wear uniforms

I saw a lot of state school (elementary level) pupils in NYC in uniform. Don't think it extended beyond elementary school though.

They have them in a lot of African countries, not being able to afford the uniform is a major issue for many children.

Some American high schools are trying to re-institute uniform to clear out gang culture. they have probelms with the Amendment to the constitution that gives freedom of expression.

In Singapore (also ex-colony) there are uniforms for state schools.

Canada, despite being ex-colony, has no state schools with uniforms, afaik. Private schools have uniforms, and catholic schools (which are semi-state, I think, subsidised at least, it's a whole Battle of Abraham history thing. I think.) have uniforms.

a faciniting wiki article on this topic

It would seem that numbers of children wearing school uniform in state schools in the US is rising.

I and db went to schools in Kenya where we had to have full uniforms, and later the same in Malawi (me) and Zimbabwe (db). We had to have two blazers, one for best and one for everyday. Db's eventually cost a fortune, because he was good at sport and as soon as he won school colours there'd be a special blazer for it, one for rugby, then one for cricket, and ties to go with them, which my parents would have to shell out for. There was also one for tennis, but luckily he didn't play tennis! I never dared ask how much it all cost, but I know my parents paid stonking amounts of money for school stuff.

I'm not against school uniforms if they are reasonably cheap, as they were for dd1 and dd2 (in UK) and it does cut out this evil clothes-snobbery you get at schools where you get bullied just for having unfashionable trainers. Making everyone wear the same has a good effect there. But now there are schools in the UK that are trying to use uniforms to quietly push their schools upmarket. They're stipulating that the uniforms must come from a limited number of pricey manufacturers, thus subtly making sure that poorer families will be unable to afford them. I think that's disgusting.

The Cypriot schools all seem to have uniform as do the military schools over here.