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Uniform
rule is optional
Dispensing
with the school uniform is optional and not mandatory.
Department
of Education Secretary Jesli Lapus clarified this over the speculation that the
new DepEd's directive on uniforms for public elementary and high schools is in
fact adding more burden to parent's expense for education.
President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has directed DepEd through Lapus to make a directive to
forego the uniforms to spare the parents of additional load of buying a new set
of uniforms especially for those stepping into the first level of formal school
and those enrolling into a new school.
Lapus
however stressed that the overall goal of the directive, is to offer public school
students an opportunity to avail themselves of a truly free education as envisioned
by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
On
this, he added students who already have school uniforms are free to wear them,
but those who cannot afford uniforms are not compelled to buy them.
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According to DepEd's
office in charge of the assistant Bohol superintendent, Maria Linda Namocatcat,
the Divison has yet to get a copy of the directive. Nevertheless, she said if
they implement, it has to be for new pupils and students.
Old
students may still wear their uniforms, she said.
Some
parents, upon learning of the new directive however said that the move may even
be more expensive for them. |
Moreover,
Namocatcat agreed that a uniform helps identify a student as such, and it keeps
parents from buying more costly clothes, which kids may ask to be 'in'.
As
this developed, DepED reiterated that the education battlecry of "public
education at no cost" to public school students, is part of the administration's
"comprehensive strategy" to increase enrollment in the country's public
schools.
The
end goal after all is to eliminate dropouts among the youth, he bared.
The
strategy includes conditional cash transfers and no collection of fees upon enrollment,
agrees Bohol Division Office's Maria Linda Namocatcat in a phone interview recently.
"The
government is trying to eliminate all obstacles to achieving quality education,"
Lapus said.
The
government's conditional cash transfer program gives a "very poor student
P300 a month, provided he attends classes regularly", sources at the DepEd
said.
The
no collection upon enrollment is also closely monitored, says Namocatcat citing
that nobody is to be refused admittance because parents could not afford to pay.
(rachiu/PIA) | 
