Uniforms could become compulsory in schools, according to a bill aimed at amending and supplementing the new education law. In addition, they would be offered free of charge, according to the legislative proposal. Parents’ associations claim that this measure could generate chaos.
Mandatory school uniforms outrage parents – PHOTO Inquam Photos / Octav Ganea
The bill submitted to the Senate proposes that school uniforms become mandatory, with the technical details approved by order of the Minister of Education. Their financing will be covered from government funds, the budget of the Ministry of Education, other coordinating institutions or from local budgets and non-reimbursable external funds. The project provides for changes to the Pre-University Education Law, including the right of students to receive uniforms for free and the possibility for local authorities to cover the costs of uniforms from their own budgets.
“According to studies carried out by The European Commission, school dropout is caused by personal or family problems, learning difficulties or, in most cases, the poor socioeconomic situation, which, unfortunately, can translate into the inability of parents to support the purchase of supplies or clothing necessary to attend physical classes , or of IT means to ensure access to courses in online format”, the statement of reasons states.
“We don’t live in those times anymore. Clothing belongs to everyone’s freedom. Do not accept students. What would it help?”, commented education expert Ștefan Vlaston for “truth“.
A proposal like “nut in the wall”
Iuliana Constantinescu, the president of the parents’ association at Lucian Blaga Theoretical High School, believes that the school uniform is not necessary and cannot be imposed, because students have rights and cannot be sanctioned for not complying with a dress code.
“I think that it is not a necessary measure. The obligation to wear uniform cannot be established. We all know that students have rights and that they cannot be forced to wear a uniform and even if schools enforce a certain dress code, students cannot be penalized for not following that dress code. And the legislative proposal, as it was formulated, is a relative obligation, if I may say so, because it would mean that only schools that want to can impose the wearing of this uniform as an obligation. In addition, there is the funding, which we are not clearly told where it should come from, only that certain local or central authorities could finance the costs of these uniforms, they just can, so they will not be obliged to bear them . So, it seems to me that this legislative initiative is as little as a nut in the wall, given that education has been under-funded for many years, given that we have many needs at the system level and not wearing uniforms is a measure which will lead to the smooth running of the courses, as the one who proposed this amendment to the law wrote in the text of the legislative proposal.“, she emphasizes, according to Antena 3.
“Both the organization and operation regulations of the school units, as well as the students’ status, clearly stipulate that students must have decent grades in school? Yes, very often this does not happen, but schools can take action and punish students when their attire is indecent. So I think it depends a lot on how we each see, how we each position ourselves towards the school, what importance and what respect we give to the school space.“, said Iuliana Constantinescu.
Schools lack a lot of other things, the parent representative emphasizes.
“The biggest shortages are, as always, the school infrastructure, the lack of authorizations, the spaces where the courses are held. Slowly, slowly the summer vacation will come to an end and we are approaching the start of a new school year and we still have school facilities that are not authorized from a sanitary or a-visu point of view. We have schools that are very old, they are falling on us, we do not have didactic materials, we do not yet have modern teaching aids available in all educational units. We continue to struggle with the lack of school textbooks, especially at the high school, where they have not been edited for years. There are a whole lot of flaws in the system. It’s not the school uniform that we’re missing right now.“, adds the president of the association of parents from Liceul Theoretic Lucian Blaga,
And the former president of the Romanian Parents’ Federation, Iulian Cristache, commented on the subject on Facebook: “Although the uniform may be regulated by each U.Î. (no educational unit), I understand that it is a new project that, somehow, imposes. We have finished all the necessary things and are clinging to the uniform. If at UB you can wear anything “uniform”, now students have to line up like in North Korea. So: 1. Either we don’t know what we’re getting ourselves into and you’ll convince yourself that it won’t behave and there will be a scandal with the students who won’t wear it and those you have nothing to do with, you are obliged to accept them in the school. 2. Or… a national coup is being prepared, with some companies of some tricksters in the Parliament. Forgive me…“
