Footwear before education?

I refer to the news story Pupils' shoes will be made uniform nationwide published in Kompas on Aug. 22. Is such an idea necessary?

The project targets about five million students and has been tested in two provinces: East Java and Central Java. It is said that the shoes are produced by PT Ary Nusa Pakarti (ANP) using synthetic raw materials. The price of a pair of shoes is fixed at Rp 21,000.

If the shoe project is accepted, I would like to suggest that the colors follow those of the uniforms: white and red for elementary school pupils, white and blue for junior high school students and white and gray for senior high school students.

Furthermore, each school should be given the right to organize the materials and choose the tailors. Using materials such as goat hide, cow hide or canvas etc. would undercut the cost of products.

Why should parents be burdened with the extra cost of complying with various standardizing programs, such as uniform writing books and forcing pupils to buy tickets for certain performances etc?

I think improving the curriculum and teachers' welfare, to ensure a better standard of teaching, is more urgent and requires the authorities' attention.

We still have to catch up with other countries, don't we?

BASUKI

Bekasi, West Java