Douala : Lucrative Business of School Uniforms

Gone are the days when newly admitted students were simply given a sample of the fabric retained as school uniform and allowed to purchase it from the market and have it sewn by any tailor of one’s choice. The only specification could be the style with most schools recommending long skirts below the knees for girls and trousers for boys. However, over the year recognizing the lucrativeness of the business of providing school uniforms, most schools no longer give out samples but recommend a specific supplier with whom the institution has established a partnership. Some schools had gone so far as recommending that the uniforms should be bought only from the school campus itself. But following the order of the then minister of National Education forbidding the sale of uniforms on school campuses, some school authorities has resorted to recommending a third party supplier, who is in connivance with the institutions. At times the supplier is just a smoke screen for the school authorities.
It is worthy to mention that this attitude was hitherto reminiscent of private schools but gradually some public schools are beginning to emulate the bad example. For instance, the bilingual high school in Deido-Douala changed its uniform from the kai brown trousers and sky-blue jackets that is common to all public secondary schools, to a green dotted fabric purportedly to easily identify the students of the institution. However the problem is not with the change of uniform but the fact that the uniforms can be acquired solely from the school campus. Given rupture in supply from Cicam, parents have been flooding the school campus in quest for uniforms for their children to no avail. The result is that while some students wear the old uniform to school, others wear the new one while waiting for their parents to acquire ...