New school uniform introduced in Chechnya

In Chechnya, the issue of the new uniform for Grozny schools is still very hot. Pupils' parents assert that the new uniform is imposed by bureaucrats and express their extreme discontent with the quality and cost of the schoolchildren's clothes.

"The issue of introducing the new uniform for pupils of Grozny schools was raised for the first time at the end of the last school year. In some schools, parents have even given money for buying new clothes. However later, when parents began to protest, the city authorities who had initiated the innovation as if gave up their intention," said Zarema, a resident of Grozny.

However, as she has added, before the start of the new school year, this issue was raised again, and it was announced that the uniform would be brought right to schools, and parents should buy it in place. But before September 1, they were told that clothes are not enough for everybody; and parents should buy the uniform by themselves. The cost was minimum 1000-1500 per pupil ($32-47 - comment of CK editor).

"Our children have studied for a week, and now they again announce that the uniform should be identical, and that we need again to buy it. It's just a mockery both at us and at our children. Besides, for many families preparing a child for school is quite a problem, especially if a family has two or three pupils. Then, at least 10-12 thousand roubles ($320-380 - comment of CK editor) should be spent," said Zarema.

According to another local woman - Tamusi, whose son is a fourth form pupil, last Saturday, September 5, she was invited to a parents' meeting. "The class teacher brought parents together and said that we should buy the new uniform for our children. One of the parents said that he had already bought school clothes for his kids, and he wouldn't spend money for the benefit of bureaucrats," she said. "Then, the teacher answered that in this case he would have to take his kids' documents away from the school."

After the investigation with participation of the school director, it became clear that there was no written order about the new uniform. There was only an oral request to teachers from the Department of Education of Grozny: to persuade parents to buy the uniform. The general opinion of parents is that the whole mess around the new uniform was initiated with the aim of enrichment of a certain group of officials.

The representative of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" in the city of Grozny believes that introduction of the new identical uniform for Grozny schoolchildren is illegitimate. "It looks like our bureaucrats confuse the state general educational establishments with private schools. It's clear that enforcement of parents to buy the uniform of one and the same model, produced, by the way, by a municipal garment factory, is illegal. Parents can appeal against this decision in the legal order; and I've no doubts they will win the case," said the human rights activist.