Footwear before education?

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