Big news here in Korea, kids will be free of uniforms!

Students to be freed from dress codes

Primary and secondary school students in Seoul will be able to abandon their drab uniform to freely choose what to wear and how to style their hair from next year, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said Wednesday.

The education office announced a new ordinance draft designed to promote students’ basic human rights. Under the ordinance, which it plans to seek approval at the Seoul Metropolitan Council in November, restrictions on dress codes, hairstyles and even rallies inside campus will be abolished.

At the same time, they will be able to carry cellular phones and other electronic gadgets at their own discretion.

The ordinance strictly bans teachers from using any forms of physical punishment on students. The ban on corporal punishment will also be applied to private cram schools or “hagwon,” it said.

The ordinance also bans schools from obliging students to attend after-hour classes.

After holding a series of hearings the education office will finalize the ordinance next month.

Korea Times-Sep 7, 2011

I remember that this was always a big issue here in Korea as schooling was a very militant and strict thing to go through for children. After years of abuse by teachers, both physical and psychological, it looks like the Koreans are not going to stand for this anymore. Maybe the drafters of this plan had bad memories of their own childhood and wanted it stopped for future generations or possibly the old boys club had a few grandkids who were affected recently. All we know is that it is out with the old uniforms and in with what I grew up with. I am pleased to see that kids will not have their hair forcibly cut by teachers and principals, or that the nasty detention scandals will be lessened and that the brutal physical abuse which characterized Korean schools will no longer be tolerated by the government. As to how the old guard actually respond to this remains to be seen, but for now lets celebrate for the newest generation of Koreans and their newly found freedoms!!