Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee is being urged by a government school teachers' organisation to rethink the introduction of a uniform colour scheme for all the schools that are run by the state government. They urged that if this is done, institutes will lose their own distinct identities.
It was decided that students from the pre-primary level to Class VIII in all the state-run schools will have a common uniform which will have a blue and white colour scheme. The uniform will also feature the Biswa Bangla logo of the Government of West Bengal. Currently, every school has its own uniform that is colour-coded.
As many as 39 schools are run by the state government directly, this is apart from the various institutes that are aided by the state. Many of them have a historic heritage that is rich and illustrious as well. They have a heritage of 50 years to 200 years and each of them boasts its own identity. This is what the West Bengal Government School Teachers' Association highlighted in a letter they addressed to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
"If the uniform colour pattern of students of different schools is distinct, it will be easier to differentiate students from one school to another and mark a student for any good job or misdeed. This is important for social discipline and having a proper rule of law," the association's General Secretary, Sougata Basu, said in the letter, as stated in a report by PTI.
The General Secretary mentioned that a uniform colour code for pre-primary to Class VIII alone will lead to the creation of a mental distance between them and those students from Classes IX and XII.
Recently, the state government brought out a notice to employ self-help groups (SHGs) to stitch the uniforms with standardised colour schemes. The association mentioned that to make the task viable financially and make sure that the quality of the fabric used is good, the task could have been given to Tantuja.
Under the brand Tantuja, the government agency West Bengal State Handloom Weavers Co-operative Society sells its products.
When the change in school uniforms was proposed, a huge debate began as the opposition parties, BJP and CPI (M), accused the ruling party TMC of imposing the Chief Minister's favourite colour and the Biswa Bangla logo to "satisfy her whims".
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee rejected the allegation saying that the logo on the uniform belongs to the Government of Telangana, not the TMC.
