Not so fast: school asked to review casual clothes experiment

By THE NATION

 

 

ONLY A DAY after students at prestigious Bangkok Christian College were allowed to wear casual clothes to class for the first time, the Office of the Private Education Commission (Opec) yesterday sent a letter asking the country’s first private boys’ school to reconsider whether such a move was appropriate.

 

Opec secretary-general Chalam Attham, although acknowledging the school’s previous explanation that the dressing-down was part of a six-week research project, said his office was concerned about students’ orderliness and discipline, the negative impact on some parents’ expenses and several possible issues related to Thai society in general.

 

Bangkok Christian College must discuss the pilot scheme with its school board and report the result of their discussion to the Opec as speedily as possible, Chalam said, pointing out that private schoolchildren’s dress code was still covered by the Student Uniform Act 2008. 

 

“Opec was told that it was part of research but school administrators and teachers, as well as the Education Ministry, need to look deeper into what impacts the down-dressing can create. If other private schools want to follow this example, they must also think this through,” said Chalam, who only the day before had said he believed the clothes experiment did not constitute a violation of any regulations.

 

 

Education Minister Teerakiat Jareonsettasin, who had also said on Tuesday that the school was within its rights to implement this move, went further yesterday, saying he personally thought that the project shouldn’t be made an issue as it apparently had no effect on students’ academic performance. 

 

Teerakiat quoted a speech by King Rama VI, who had said that the purpose of a student uniform was to impose discipline and narrow social gaps. He also said the head teacher at Bangkok Christian College had acknowledged the benefits of requiring students to wear uniforms, hence the reason for casual clothing being allowed on only one day per week. In conclusion, Teerakiat said he recognised the private school’s good intentions and wouldn’t issue any instructions for them to halt the project.

 

On the other hand he said schools under the remit of the Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) required students to wear uniforms – casual clothing was never allowed – as per existing rules.

 

Obec assistant secretary-general Amporn Pinasa agreed that allowing casual clothes at a private school, which falls under the Opec’s supervision, couldn’t be compared or applied to Obec’s public schools, which must adhere strictly to the Student Uniform Act 2008. 

 

That Act stipulates that public school students must wear a school uniform as per the Education Ministry’s standard and that if other clothing, such as casual or Thai traditional attire, were to be allowed, that change could only happen with the prior permission of the head of the respective provincial education office.

 

Bangkok Christian College is running its pilot project every Tuesday throughout this semester so that pupils can express their individuality and creativity.

 

It was first implemented on Tuesday, when it generated a public debate over its appropriateness, but head teacher Suphakit Jitklongsub pledged that if the scheme were shown to negatively affect students’ academic performance, it would be scrapped.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30361942

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-01-10

36 minutes ago, webfact said:

Bangkok Christian College is running its pilot project every Tuesday throughout this semester so that pupils can express their individuality and creativity.

One day a week to "express their individuality and creativity" sounds like a healthy deviation from the strict uniform code. Can't see anything but positives here.

Encouraging individuality is totally against the philosophy of the education department. Great pains are taken to avoid individual expression at all levels of schooling. This experiment must be causing some major freakouts with the mucky mucks.

Congratulation BCC though for having the stones and vision to give it a go however.

This creativity thing can easily get out of hand and turn pervers. Look at the guy to the left, he has gone  all in, and is about to go all out????

OPEC dinosaurs need to go extinct!

1 hour ago, webfact said:

the negative impact on some parents’ expenses

I believe school uniforms are not free.  In my opinion forcing parents to buy uniforms in addition to the child's everyday clothing has much more of a negative impact on the families expenses!  It may have been a marketing ploy lobbied for by greedy uniform manufacturers.  By enforcing a uniform code they i are immediately guaranteed a 'captive' clientele of approximately 15 million students

 

Additionally, it removes a persons right, and indeed, their ability to have independent thoughts and choices and results in a nation of sheep or clones.  

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Opec was told that it was part of research but school administrators and teachers, as well as the Education Ministry, need to look deeper into what impacts the down-dressing can create.

I guess this clown doesn't understand what "research" means then: You do a test (wearing casual clothes) and then monitor the outcomes, hence discovering the "impacts", as he put it. 

A storm in a teacup. These OPEC people seem to have nothing better to like checking the QUALITY of teaching, material being taught, etc. 

2 hours ago, webfact said:

a speech by King Rama VI, who had said that the purpose of a student uniform was to impose discipline and narrow social gaps

Yes, because all students in private Christians schools in Thailand are from all walks of life. There's paupers from the countryside and hill tribes who are mixing with the Thong Lor lot. Best none of them are allowed to wear their own clothes as the parents of the 1% in the BMWs won't appreciate their precious ones mixing with scum from the country.

yeah <deleted> a decent school. just make sure they all "conform" bunch of stupid extinct old farts

38 minutes ago, djayz said:

A storm in a teacup. These OPEC people seem to have nothing better to like checking the QUALITY of teaching, material being taught, etc. 

its about "control" nothing else

I think this is the preferred uniform.

 

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Office of the Private Education Commission (Opec)

Wish they'd stop nicking other org's acronym's .. The first thoughts were Opec ? What have Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries got to do with private school uniforms .. Need to show a bit more originality on the acc's front .. 

I always thought uniforms were a great leveler there will obviously be young guys in school who cannot afford all these designer trainers and clothes 

14 minutes ago, ChipButty said:

I always thought uniforms were a great leveler there will obviously be young guys in school who cannot afford all these designer trainers and clothes 

Yeah, lots of people struggling to buy trainers and clothes at Bangkok Christian School (around 150,000 baht per term all in).  

Can't have any individuality or freedom of sartorial or verbal expression. No, no, no. Conform, conform, conform - to the whims and wishes of your MASTERS. That is the order of the day.

 

God, in many respects this place is decades behind the progressive world. And that is being generous with the time-frame!

1 hour ago, ChipButty said:

I always thought uniforms were a great leveler there will obviously be young guys in school who cannot afford all these designer trainers and clothes 

so they learn not everything in life is on an equal playing field

3 hours ago, Prairieboy said:

I believe school uniforms are not free.  In my opinion forcing parents to buy uniforms in addition to the child's everyday clothing has much more of a negative impact on the families expenses!

I believe this in the U.S.  But in Thailand, I've seen a lot of kids wearing school uniform outside of school hours (including weekends) and heard someone explain it's because the uniform is the only clothes they own.  This doesn't appear to be the social faux pas in Thailand that it would be in the West?  Or maybe it is and I just don't know.  Either way, if the parents *can* afford only a uniform and so that's all the child wears, then it's still going to be painfully obvious who doesn't have money, isn't it?

 

I've never believed any of these "arguments" for school uniforms, though. 

 

Why would students be less disciplined or academically successful because they don't wear uniforms?  Most people's clothing reflects their personality and attitude, doesn't influence it. 

 

Why would wearing a uniform eliminate economic differences?  As stated above, uniforms just make parents buy two sets of clothing instead of one, everyone will still know the kids in the worn/ill-fitting/hand-me-down uniforms are the poor ones, and there are many ways they'll know besides clothing, like where the kid lives, what they eat for lunch, whether they have parties or something, whether they can afford after-school activities, they might even know what each other's parents do.  (I don't recall ever paying much attention to what my classmates wore-- and let's face it, it was largely jeans and t-shirts anyway, for everyone-- but I still knew who was poor and who was rich.)

 

And as for the argument often trotted out in the U.S., that it easily shows intruders by who's not in uniform-- as if it's difficult to buy a school uniform (assuming the person isn't a former student who already has the real deal?)?

 

Mind you, I'll admit uniforms can be easy (times when I've had to wear them for work, it's been easy to get dressed), and I always said in school I wouldn't necessarily be against them IF they made sense (no uncomfortable silly things like ties, or requiring girls to wear skirts {especially in my cold-ass state; no way in hell am I freezing my ass off all winter 'cause somebody thinks the world will end if I wear pants}), and I don't feel my life will end if I can't "express my creativity" through what I wear, but I just don't see why they're needed.

I wondered how long it would be before this experiment would rattle a few cages in the "stuck in the mud" elite.

3 hours ago, Prairieboy said:

I believe school uniforms are not free.  In my opinion forcing parents to buy uniforms in addition to the child's everyday clothing has much more of a negative impact on the families expenses!  It may have been a marketing ploy lobbied for by greedy uniform manufacturers.  By enforcing a uniform code they i are immediately guaranteed a 'captive' clientele of approximately 15 million students

 

Additionally, it removes a persons right, and indeed, their ability to have independent thoughts and choices and results in a nation of sheep or clones.  

Uniform clothing in schools were introduced for a specific reason, look it up why!

 

I think Uniforms for school look smart and tidy having being born in 50's and born in the army Im used to wearing uniforms my favourite at the moment is a nurses one

5 hours ago, Prairieboy said:

I believe school uniforms are not free.  In my opinion forcing parents to buy uniforms in addition to the child's everyday clothing has much more of a negative impact on the families expenses!  It may have been a marketing ploy lobbied for by greedy uniform manufacturers.  By enforcing a uniform code they i are immediately guaranteed a 'captive' clientele of approximately 15 million students

 

Additionally, it removes a persons right, and indeed, their ability to have independent thoughts and choices and results in a nation of sheep or clones.  

A land of uniforms to keep certain "apparel" manufacturers nicely employed...

14 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

A land of uniforms to keep certain "apparel" manufacturers nicely employed...

Yep, a Nation of uniforms and they need to be told what colour T-Shirt to wear

Next on the list will be the teachers dressed as sloppily as they are in Oz. Wearing respectable clothing, be it a uniform or not, is just a form of discipline that all children should learn. If you drive on Thai roads you will notice that trait is missing.

A troll post has been removed. 

SANITY and DECORUM HAS PREVAILED !

Congratulations to Opec on this very sensible stance.

 

We don’t Need to degenerate to a system (if it can be called a “system”) such as exists in the U.S., where kids can apparently turn-up in a 

Loin Cloth if they should so desire.

 

My daughter and her friends who just graduated from one of Chiang Mai’s leading Schools have all benefited greatly from wearing their Uniform with Pride and a Respect. They now do the same with their Uniforms at CMU.

 

Far better than the Rabble Behaviour exhibited by kids who attend alleged, “Learning Institutions” in less civilized countries.

 

As for those who bemoan the cost of buying Uniforms, the costs are very reasonable and a STANDARD PRICE...as a result, there is NO IDIOTIC 

“One Upmanship,” where wealthier kids are able to buy the LATEST EXPENSIVE FASHION Outfits, whilst their poorer classmates have to make-do with something from the Big-C Bargain Table.

 

STICK WITH IT OPEC.... Don’t allow the next generations of Thai School Kids to degenerate into an unruly, disrespectful ‘gun toting’ rabble...

”As seen on TV.”  

I doubt it will be allowed to continue for very long. The Thai approach to all things youth, is to oblige them to comply, hence even year 1 university students have to wear ridiculous uniforms.

 

It will not suit the landed barons for youth to make it's own decisions - trouser style today, what tomorrow? Elect a government? Nonono

 

it's just not on.

 

 

 

4 hours ago, ChipButty said:

I always thought uniforms were a great leveler there will obviously be young guys in school who cannot afford all these designer trainers and clothes 

I always thought school uniforms were obsolete a thing from the past. I grew up in a liberal country the Netherlands and not old fashioned country. 

 

Though I can understand how it can level the playing-field a bit, cant say I ever felt the need to wear the same as my class mates. 

 

Anyway i think many of the people who are pro school uniforms probably have hidden motives as that they have shares in companies producing them. I am of course talking about the decision makers not foreigners with opinions about them.

Here where I work (public college) we had parents complain about our no-uniform Fridays... all complains were basically that they had to spend more money on clothes as they had already payed for the school uniform package (shirt/blouse, 2 polo shirts, pants/skirt, jacket and school accessories like necktie, buttons/emblems etc)... they pay a grand total of 500 Baht for the school uniform package!
It's the same with the free housing (including bedding and fans) and food that we have for any students living in the dormitory... the parents complain that they have to pay 100 Baht per month/house for electricity and water... each house has 2 bunk beds, so that's 4 students (if the house is full) that share 100/month = 25 Baht student/month!?

Conform, conform, conform  it's bred into Thais from a very early age and it's why the Army get away with it