PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government may be still hesitant to decide about the uniform for the boys of government schools after sensing reservations from its conservative coalition ally Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) but young boys of Government Boys Higher Secondary School No.1 Peshawar Cantonment recently renamed after Shaheed Mubin Shah already know what uniform suits them best.

A visit to a section of grade 8th at the school showed some students were handsomely wearing sky-blue shirt, blazer and grey pantaloon ( pants) while others were wearing grayish black Shalwar Qameez locally called Militia (the dress deriving its name from militia uniform). There was not one uniform yet the students gave very interesting and logical explanations about why they chose to wear one or the other kind of uniform.

“I want to wear pant-shirt as it removes difference between the students of private and government schools,” said Mohammad Shoaib, an 8th grader.

However, his class-mate Mohammad Haris was wearing black Shalwar Qameez and said he liked to wear it.

“I like to wear this Shalwar Qameez as it is symbol of government school. When a student wins a competition or performs well people can tell by this uniform that he is a government school student and brilliant,” said Haris, who takes pride in wearing Shalwar Qameez because he thinks it is also symbolic of his culture.

But Mohammad Amir, another 8th grader, said that he liked wearing pant-shirt as he looked good in that uniform. He said that it did not cost him more than Shalwar Qameez.

As the students gave their varied opinion about their choice in uniform, these well-manner boys -- a class of about 40 -- also dispelled the impression about government schools boys being shy or dull as compared to the private schools.

Abdus Samad said when he used to come to school wearing black uniform he felt bad when he looked at students of private schools wearing pant-shirt.

“When our principal gave us option to wear uniform of our choice I was so happy and chose to wear pant-shirt,” said Abdus Samad.

Muzzammil Khan , however, disagreed and said that he came from a village called Kotla Mohsin Khan so he felt uncomfortable wearing pant-shirt. Village folk would make fun of him if he wore pant-shirt, he said.

“Why can’t we take pride in Shalwar Qameez as pant-shirt is not very decent I think,” said Muzzammil.

His classmates in favour of pant-shirt uniform said when people went abroad for jobs they wore pant-shirt so people didn’t care about cultural dress then. However, they said that if the government decided about one dress as uniform there should be uniformity.

A senior teacher on condition of anonymity said that the students were told to wear pant-shirt as uniform as the school administration wanted to remove difference between government and private school students and bring uniformity. Some students suffered from inferiority complex when they looked at private school students wearing pant-shirt. However, few conservative parents rejected pant-shirt uniform as ‘western dress’. They also thought it would be expensive as compared to Shalwar Qameez.

However, when parents were told about estimates and how pant-shirt uniform could be made available on equal price at the school ranging from Rs400 to Rs700 since one old student tailor even agreed to sew pant-shirt on affordable price, very few resisted the idea.

Some of the students, who had started wearing pant-shirt, also refused to switch back to Shalwar Qameez so the school administration gave them the option to wear uniform of their liking.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2015