School uniforms will be the rule next year, Education Minister Gideon Saar announced, thus restoring the dress code that was in practice in earlier years in Israeli elementary and junior high schools. The Education Ministry has recommended that high schools also institute uniforms, but it left each school free to decide this matter for itself.
“Uniforms contribute to a significant improvement in the atmosphere of schools by highlighting equality and pride,” according to Minister Saar, who previously has taken aim at violence and lack of discipline in the school system.
Saar said he met with the National Students Council and parents' organizations before ordering the dress code, which will take effect at the beginning of the school year in September. Every school can decide for itself what uniforms the students will wear.
Most Israeli schools already have instituted uniforms, which are more popular in religious schools. Uniforms were in fashion in Israel until the early 1980s, when more attention was focused on the individual and less on solidarity within the schools.