Uniform: Yes or No!

Yeni Purtika

Carol Speranza

C '08 EDU REG
23 April 2010

School Uniforms in Indonesia: A Need and a Must

In Indonesia, uniforms are not just clothes. In terms of display, this clothing is a most visible marker of status, identity and ethnicity (Arthur). When Indonesians wear uniforms, it means that they are responsible and serious to the job they do. Officers in almost all official instances in Indonesia wear certain uniform related to the organization. Uniforms dictate its wearers what is and what is not appropriate to do. In school, many educators suggest dress codes are intended to teach students what is acceptable in the workforce (Key). In Indonesia, uniforms can be an indicator of polite behavior. Every country has its own regulation in deciding students obligatory to wear uniforms, especially to students in elementary, middle and high school. In Indonesia, regulation in wearing uniforms is applied in various ways, either from the school levels or the school types (Sudrajat).

Fig. l. Indonesia School Uniforms (Syukur)
(from left: elementary school, junior high school, high school, scouts)

Indonesian students wear uniforms from elementary school up to high school level. At the elementary school, students commonly wear white shirt and red shorts or skirts. At one higher school level, junior high school, students wear white shirt and blue shorts or skirts. Last, in high school, students wear white shirt and grey trousers or grey skirts. This regulation is applied nationally. Students in public schools are obligated to wear those kinds of uniforms, but the length of the clothes is not arranged by the regulation. On the other hand, private schools are given free options whether to choose the national uniforms or create their own uniforms. At Moslems schools, the regulation is mixed with Islam's rules (for instance, wearing veils for females and trousers for males). At the end of 2004, Indonesian Education Minister, Bambang Sudibyo, had planned to erase the regulation of wearing uniforms in Indonesia. This issue was controversial but most of Indonesian citizens disagreed to this plan. There are some benefits of uniforms wearing, such as (1) enhanced school safety; (2) improved learning climate, (3) higher self-esteem for students, and (4) less stress on the family (qtd. in Sudrajat). However, most Indonesians agree to uniforms wearing mainly because of these three reasons namely, encouraging discipline, reducing conflict from socio-economic status, and saving money from buying unnecessary clothes. For Indonesians, uniforms are symbols of discipline, so it will directly encourage students to be more discipline. By wearing uniforms which is obligated based on days in a week, students will be forced to be a discipline student. For example, on Monday and Tuesday, they have to wear batik uniforms. On Wednesday and Thursday students have to wear regular uniforms. While on Friday and Saturday, they have to wear scouts uniforms. Usually, schools will give punishment for students who wear wrong uniforms. Therefore, they try to regulate themselves with the schools rules. Since kids, they are trained to be a good citizen. As the U.S. Department of Education's Manual on School Uniforms notes, "Uniforms by themselves cannot solve all of the problems of school discipline, but they can be one positive contributing factor to discipline and safety" (Lumsden). By wearing the same uniforms, students control their behavior because the thought that they are educated people has already implemented in the way they dress. Automatically, it will limit the students from acting freely and doing immoral activities. In addition, some department stores and malls in Indonesia also have regulation to ban students with uniforms enter their stores. It is aimed to control the students from skipping classes. From the school point of view, uniforms also help teachers to supervise the students. For instance, when one school goes for one trip, the teacher will be easier to control the safety of the students since every student wear the same clothes. In United States there is a survey about the impact of wearing uniforms related to the safety of students. A survey reported by the New York Police Department listed many positive results after a uniform policy was begun in 2000: overall crime was down 14.7 percent and there was an improved sense of belonging and tolerance (Wilder). Although in Indonesia, there is still no survey about this, we can see from the survey that the wearing of uniforms gives real impacts to the safety of the students. Secondly, wearing uniforms can reduce the conflict from socio-economic status. As we know, Indonesia is still developing its economy. The rate of economy in Indonesia is not equal. There are extremely rich families while on the other side, there are also are very poor ones. If the regulation of uniforms is erased, it will create economic and social barriers between students. The haves students will dress glaringly while others will dress in very simple way. Students from have nots family will lose their confidence to go to school and it will create another problem. In addition, same uniforms will show tidiness and equality in school. A uniform is a marvelous equalizer of social status. It matters not whether you are the Earl of Snowdon or John Smith, son of the local green grocer, when you don that uniform, everybody looks the same (Kennedy). Allowing free clothes will make students dress as they like. As we know that imitating styles from television and magazines is Indonesians hobby. Students will imitate how the actors and actresses on TV dress. They will wear unnecessary accessories and care more to how they look than how they can achieve well in school. Therefore, a fixed dress code helps the students perform academically better. Students concentrate more on their studies rather than on deciding their wardrobe. Thirdly, parents can save money from buying unnecessary clothes. If we allow students wearing free clothes, there will be competition among students to dress the best they can. In this case, it means that parents should spend more money for buying things. We have to pay attention to the poverty line in Indonesia. The survey of Indonesia poverty line is done by Indonesia Statistics: BPS (Statistics Indonesia) on the early July 2009 announced the result of the survey on March 2009 showed that there were 32,53 millions of people in Indonesia that were below the poverty line. In this survey, the result was obtained by the average expense per person for a month about Rp.200.262 (about $23) (Waspada). Seeing the data, we can take a conclusion, allowing free clothes will create economical problem to the poor families. As we know, parents always try their best to make their children happy. They will try to accomplish any needs of their children. If they just have one or two children, they may force their selves to buy appropriate clothes, but if more than that? Indonesians families usually have three children even more than that and clothes in Indonesia are considered expensive. It will burden the parents to earn more money while Indonesia is programming free education for students. Overall, the wearing of uniforms in Indonesia is more to become a need and a must. Students can be taught to be discipline through the rules what they have to wear in school. Uniforms become the right equalizer in the case of social-economic status among students. Moreover, Indonesia still has to concern about the economical point if the regulation of wearing uniforms is erased. In conclusion, uniforms in Indonesia have become an identity and cannot be removed from schools.