Oceania covers a wide area of the southwestern Pacific. Early immigrants in two countries (Australia and New Zealand) brought English school uniforms with them, but in recent years have adopted styles more in keeping with their climate. Many Indonesia and Phillipino schools have uniforms, but there is no national style. Oceania also includes many small new island states, but we have little information on schoolwear on thiose islands.
Figure 1.--Many Austrlaian schools now have adopted casual styles with open necked shirts, shortpants, and kneesocks. Formerly they wore more formal, British styles. Notice the logos on their shirts. |
Australia, as a former English colony, set up an educational system based on the English system. Schoolwear was also basically English. Australian school uniforms through the 1970s were similar to English styles, except shorts were more common. Beginning in the 1980s more casual styles were introduced and are increasingly common at both elementary and secondary schools.
We have only limited information on Indonesia at this time. Indonesia became independent after a brief war for independence following World War II. We are not sure when school uniforms were first introduced, but ghey are quite cimmon in Indonesia. Indonesian boys tend to wear short pants through junior highschool, often with colorful uniform shorts. Indonesia is one of the few Moslem countries where boys wear short pants as school uniform. The shorts were quite short in the 1960s and 70s. Much longer shorts became standard in the 1990s. We do not know if there are national rules or the uniform is determined by each school.
Elementary children, except for the Catholic and private schools, do not wear uniforms. Secondary schools generally require uniforms. The uniforms were once traditional English styles. Uniforms since the 1960s have become more casual, but most schools continue to require them. Many schools have destinctive summer and winter uniforms. The uniforms vary, but many scools have light-weight shorts and sandals for summer and heavier shorts and kneesocks for winter. Many schools now allow the older secondary students to wear long pants.
Some elementary and most secondary schools require uniforms. Uniforms are particularly prevalent at private schools. The kind of school uniforms that are worn in the Philippines has different variety of colors and it depends on the school what color combination they use, normally they only use two colors.
Related Chronolgy Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
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Related Style Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
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[Socks]
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[Blazer]
[School sandals]
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