Stop the madness in our schools

Many parents over 40 might have thought they had seen it all until pupils at a Pretoria school disrupted classes and demanded that the school uniform policy be relaxed so they can wear skinny pants.

In another incident last week, students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal damaged university property during a protest over accommodation. They were not unhappy about the condition of their housing, per se, but the fact that it used to accommodate soldiers before it was taken over by the university to alleviate the shortage of student accommodation.

They demanded to be put up in hotels! The chutzpah!

The high-minded 1976 generation and those before it must be wondering what’s wrong with our children.

In a country beset by so many challenges, where millions live in poverty, are unemployed and go to bed on empty stomachs, what are our children’s priorities? What is their mission in life?

Is it to wear the latest fashion, own the latest cellphone and to cruise through life without putting in the hard work necessary to build character and achieve pleasing results?

It has to be remembered that the madness of skinny pants – for that is what it is – has a background.

Pupils have been pushing the envelope on school uniform matters in recent years, demanding to wear their hair in the manner they wish, for example.

Just last year there was the racial incident of Afros at a formerly white Pretoria high school. As an aside, this has to be said: those pupils would never be allowed to wear those massive Afros in many black schools.

The question has to be asked: what is the reason for going to school and the purpose of a school uniform?

If the schools and the education department bend to the whims and ever-changing fashion trends and demands of teenagers who can afford to follow these trends, what about the pupils who can’t?

Isn’t the school uniform supposed to be a leveller so that all the pupils, rich and poor, feel equal in the classroom?

We urge the education department to take charge and not let chaos continue to reign in our schools.