Students to get more time to buy uniforms, says MOE

Students will be given more time in the first few weeks of next month to buy school uniforms, said the Ministry of Education (MOE) yesterday.

Schools, which reopen from next Monday, will work closely with their vendors to ensure that students can buy their uniforms as soon as possible, and facilitate the sale of uniforms in school, MOE told The Straits Times.

MOE's response comes after an incident earlier in the day in which the police had to disperse a crowd which had gathered outside a uniform shop in Ang Mo Kio.

The crowd comprised parents who were trying to buy or exchange school uniforms for their children before school starts next week. Many were not practising safe distancing.

MOE said that due to Covid-19, schools were advised to make adjustments to their year-end school activities to safeguard the health of the school community.

This included asking schools to work with vendors to allow parents to buy their children's uniforms and books online, and to provide home deliveries.

Vendors could also allow parents to make appointments to buy uniforms in schools or at their own physical stores.

"MOE and schools understand the challenges faced by parents and vendors," said the ministry, adding that schools will also make arrangements for students who are unable to buy their uniforms in time for the start of the school term.

This includes allowing them to report in their physical education attire or primary school uniforms.

Yesterday, parents and their children were at the Jeep Sing Fashion store around 8am, two hours before it opened, for a queue ticket to buy school uniforms.

By around 10am, more than 100 people had formed a snaking queue to get into the shop located at Block 4012 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10, with some ignoring the 1m safe distancing rule.

Six police officers were seen outside the uniform shop, urging parents to stand farther apart and encouraging some to leave.

On its website, the shop told customers not to turn up as all queue tickets for the day had been issued.

Madam Sharon Yee, 33, could not get a queue ticket to buy a uniform for her son, who will be starting secondary school, even though she was at the store at 8.55am.

Secondary 1 posting results were released on Dec 22.

"My son can't wear his primary school uniform for the first few days of Secondary 1 because he has outgrown it. He might feel embarrassed that he doesn't have a uniform when his friends have theirs," said the civil servant.

Some parents also said they did not order uniforms online as the delivery time, which could exceed a week, was too long.

Jeep Sing Fashion declined comment when contacted. Yesterday, it apologised to customers on Facebook for the long queues and delay in orders, adding: "In view of Covid-19, we are experiencing a massive surge in demand for our uniforms in terms of physical and e-commerce orders."

The police also cleared crowds of parents twice last week at school uniform shop Bibi & Baba in Far East Shopping Centre, said the store's business development manager Nick Koh.

One possible reason for the queues was that about half of the secondary schools Bibi & Baba supplies uniforms to did not allow the store to sell them on the schools' premises due to Covid-19 concerns, said Mr Koh.

Queues were more orderly at Bibi & Baba yesterday and staff were seen reminding customers in line to follow safe distancing rules.