The cost of uniforms and stationary can be financially crippling. In a society where education is valued surely the least the state can do is provide the means for pupils to write with. In a school where pupils are barred from wearing their own clothes is it just to force additional financial burden onto parents? The basic precept is that education must be free and open for all. This speech will outline why we should get our equipment for free. Three points I am going to discuss are: how everyone would have the correct equipment, why the school should provide us with the required equipment, and how it helps the parents financially.
Uniforms, textbooks, exercise books, pens, pencils, erasers and other equipment students require are expensive. The uniforms alone usually push prices into 3 figures, and when you add it all up, it’s a nightmare for parents. If the school and government provided the equipment to the students, then it would be supporting the parents financially. In the current economical crisis, people are struggling to get by each week. More people are losing jobs than ever before. To compound this, prices of products and services are rising, so that companies can still make a profit. Proving the uniforms and equipment to students for free would be a huge helping hand to many families.
School is compulsory, right? You have to go to school until you comply with the laws that actually let you leave. If you are forced to go to school, why should you have to pay for the equipment to do so? I’m sure if I asked for a raise of hands, then most of the people in this room would rather be somewhere than here at school right now. Maybe at home, maybe at the beach, maybe down at the oval with some mates. But not in a classroom doing boring English work and getting in front of the class to talk about a topic that they don’t even want to talk about! Schools should provide us with the gear we need, because really, who wants to pay for something they don’t want to go to or do?
If there the required equipment handed out to students, for example at the beginning of the year, then there wouldn’t be anyone without it. No excuses. Then the teachers could punish kids without equipment easily. No excuses. There would be no “but I didn’t bring my book”. No excuses. Simply put, there is no excuses.
