IT News
Imphal, Apr 1:
Government School authorities and teachers of Primary and Upper Primary schools in the state of Manipur are facing extreme difficulties in the distribution of school uniforms to students as uniforms provided to the school under the Samagra Shiksha Scheme of the government of India come in common size despite the fact that students studying in the same class have different body structures.
Some students are fat, some thin, some are tall and some are short even though they are of similar age studying in the same class, a Primary teacher told this reporter. He added that as the school uniform are distributed as readymade with the same size the school authority is facing difficulties distributing the uniforms to students as it will be meaningless if it does not fit the student.
“For some lucky students it is okay, but for some, we are having the toughest time adjusting appropriate school uniforms to them that fit them”, the primary school teacher told this reporter.
When visiting some other government schools, the teachers there too face a similar problem. Many students simply did not get the appropriate school uniform that fit them.
As per report, the education department of the government of Manipur outsourced the supply of stitch school uniforms to private firms by giving the sizes of the uniforms by inviting tenders. As per the tender notice size of the stitch school uniform that has to be supplied for Class 1 was given as – For pants – the length is 24 inches, waist (Belt with Gathering) is 22 – 8 = 14 inches, Hip (seat) 26 inches, bottom is 12, and high round is 22 inches. For class 2 students for pants the stitch uniform size was given as – For pants – the length is 26 inches, waist (Belt with Gathering) is 23 – 8 = 15 inches, Hip (seat) 28 inches, the bottom is 13, and high round is 23 inches. For class 3 students to VIII students, the size of the pants is increased by 1 inch as the class increase. For girls stitch skirt sizes provided are all same for each class. And the shirts too are size are equal for each class. As per the guidelines uniforms provided are adjustable for students studying from class 1 to IV and class V to class VIII.
However, as the size of the students varies and as the school uniform arrives when the education department has notified primary and upper primary schools to conduct term examinations by April, the teachers and other school authorities are busy and have a difficult time finding fit uniforms for students one after another. And some of the students are disappointed as they don’t get a school uniform of their size.
It may be mentioned that after similar problems have been faced by the schools in Uttar Pradesh, the government of Uttar Pradesh has adopted another policy to solve the problem. In November 2021, the Chief Minister of UP Yogi Adityanath distributed the money for the purchase of school uniforms to the parents or guardians of the students of government primary and upper primary.
According to a report of the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) of the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education of the Government of India total number of Primary Schools (Class 1 to V) in Manipur is 2422, the total number of upper primary school (class 1-VIII) is 926, the total number of Upper Primary School (Class VI –VIII) is 40, the total number of Secondary School which have class 1 to VII is 849 and the total number of secondary school which also have class VI to VII is 83.
