FCT pupils wear wrong uniforms to schools

Students in both public and private primary and post primary schools are required to wear clean uniforms to foster discipline and create identity. Uniforms promote atmosphere of belonging and prevent competitions among students. In Federal Capital Territory (FCT), school managements are duty bound to ensure that students wear correct uniforms as well as keep them […]

Students in both public and private primary and post primary schools are required to wear clean uniforms to foster discipline and create identity. Uniforms promote atmosphere of belonging and prevent competitions among students.
In Federal Capital Territory (FCT), school managements are duty bound to ensure that students wear correct uniforms as well as keep them clean and maintained.
While few state governments have delivered free uniforms to pupils especially in the primary schools, in the FCT, parents must provide uniforms for their children. Parents who cannot afford uniforms send their children to schools without uniforms or even barefooted. Schools in the urban areas have at different occasions turned away students with inaccurate uniforms but rural schools allow them to take lessons, to at least woo them to learn.  
A class four pupils of LEA Primary School in Gwagwalada Area Council was seen looking frightened and disturbed in her torn school uniform.
Our reporter, who visited some schools in Gwagwalada area council, gathered that a number of pupils, including girls, wear tattered uniforms while more boys went to school bare-foot.
There were also pupils wearing wrong clothes and several others with either their shirts or trousers patched up.
One of the pupils Amina said she had complained to her parents that wearing torn uniforms was an offence and that she needed new ones but her parents said they haven’t got enough money to buy new uniforms for her.
 “I told my parents that my uniforms are in bad condition and I need new ones but my father said that he has no money. He said anytime he gets money he will provide new uniform for me.”
Another pupil, Cabita in primary 3 has been attending school with torn uniforms.
Cabita said that her father is a farmer and her mother a petty trader but they’ve always promised to provide buy new uniforms for her anytime she asked.
A widow who gave her name as Ladi Kaduna is one of the parents who cannot provide uniforms for her children.
Ladi said that she was selling groundnut cake to take care of her three children but stopped business recently.
“I am a widow with three children. My husband died recently. I was selling groundnut cake but I stopped doing the business due to lack of capital. I struggle to feed my children. I can’t buy new uniforms for my children because I don’t have the money.”
One of the head teacher Cabita of LEA School Dnalita, Danladi Iliya, said there were many pupils in his school who wear tattered uniforms.
In his remark, the Chairman Parent Teacher Association (PTA) of LEA Primary School Gwako II, Malam Shehu Makama Gwako, said that the association had to update parents on the condition of their children’s uniforms.
He said many parents insisted that they have no money to buy new uniforms for their children.
“We’ve been talking to parents but they told us that they are farmers and they don’t have money to buy new uniforms for their children.”
According to him, more than 200 pupils in Gwako II wear torn uniforms. He said the union has pleaded with parents to ensure that their children dress neatly to school.
The head teacher of the school, Mrs. Olusola R Omolara, said it was economic hardship that forced some parents to allow their children to go to school with torn uniforms.
“To me, it is due to the economic situation of the nation. No mother would like to see her child wearing torn uniform to school.”
According to her, many of her pupils attend school without shoes.
She said that anytime she drives them away from school, their parents turn up to say they don’t have money to buy new uniforms for their children.
The Chairman Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Gwagwalada branch, Comrade Idris Kehinde Ismaila, acknowledged that poverty was one of the major reasons why pupils wear torn uniforms.
“Basically, these pupils are from very poor homes. These people are not struggling to build house, rather they are struggling to eat.”
He said many of these parents regard new uniforms as luxury and that there were many public schools whose pupils wear torn uniforms in Gwagwalada area council.
“In more than 82 schools in Gwagwalada Area Council, there is no school where you will not see the same situation.
“We have not less than 52 pupils who wear torn uniforms and about 59 per cent of such uniforms are close to rags.”
He said that it was the major reason the union distributed free uniforms to the pupils of various public primary schools in the area.
He said that the gesture became necessary after they visited some schools and discovered that some pupils wore uniforms with patches.
“We saw girls with uniforms torn at the wrong side at the back. We saw boys who wore uniforms that were close to rags, their knickers patched with another colour of fabric. We saw boys using rope as belt for their shorts. Many boys and girls were putting on short uniforms with no hope of replacement. Some of them cannot walk straight because you must not see their backside. A number of them had several patches on their uniforms.”
He said the union selected 25 pupils with worst cases in each school from the three zones of Gwagwalada area council and gave them free uniforms.
Comrade Idris Kehinde Ismaila, who called on wealthy individuals to come to the aid of pupils in rural communities, said a total number of 75 pupils have gotten free uniforms, and that the aim of the union was to improve the wellbeing of the pupils.