The Ministry of Education has for the umpteenth time announced that learners, in primary or secondary school, will not be compelled to buy uniforms from select or predetermined suppliers.
Head teachers have been accused of running shops or collaborating with uniform suppliers from whom they extract a commission by compelling their students to patronise the select distributors.
The quest for an extra source of income or the desire to make illegal financial advantage from public office has become a national obsession.
That the ministry keeps publicly repeating the message means school administrators have yet to stop exploiting parents through their children.
How on earth does a blue, red or yellow uniform make a difference just because it was bought from a supplier who does not share his profit for every sale?
The ministry must now go a step further and make an example of any head teacher caught forcing students to buy from their preferred uniform shop.
It would make financial sense if the preferred suppliers were cheaper, but in most cases they are not. The only reason they are selected is because they are in essence business partners of school administrators.
The ministry must investigate and suspend or interdict a culprit to tame this form of corruption.
Quote of the Day: “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.”
Ariel Durant
Russian-born American author died on October 25, 1981