Uniform scandal erupts -demand by Kaunda Square school angers parents
Written by Millennium on June 17, 2019
SANFROSSA MANYINDA writes
PARENTS with children at Kaunda Square Primary School in Lusaka are unhappy with management for constantly changing uniforms each year.
The parents told the Sun in separate interviews on Tuesday that it was not fair for the school to constantly change uniforms for the pupils as it was expensive for them.
One parent, Mildred Banda, said the school notified them about the changing of the school uniform every year, a situation she said was uncalled for.
“We are tired of receiving notices form the school asking us to buy new uniforms for our children each year. How many uniforms are we going to buy six years from now?” Ms Banda questioned.
She said she has got two children at the school, one in Grade Five and the other in Grade Two, who had been changing uniforms every year since the time they were enrolled into Kaunda Square Primary School.
She said the children always reminded her to pay for their uniforms almost every week as the teachers kept asking them when their parents would get them the new uniform.
Another parent, Cecilia Mofya, wondered how special the school was for it to be changing the colour of uniforms every year.
“The school tells us that it does not want to have uniforms similar to that of other schools and we keep wondering what makes this school so different and special from other schools,” Ms Mofya said.
She said not every parent could afford to buy new uniforms every year, especially those who had more than one child at the school.
Ms Mofya said most parents had got between three and five children at the school and subjecting them to buying new uniforms of a new colour every year would be unfair to them.
And school head teacher Mrs. Kaoma said that it was not a must that parents should buy new uniform for their children from the school.
She said that the school and the PTA held a meeting at which it was resolved that children who already had old uniforms should continue using them if their parents were comfortable with the idea.
She said that only pupils coming to the school on transfer, and grades ones and eights, were required to buy new uniforms.
Efforts to get a comment from the Ministry of General Education failed by press time.
