I have not yet written about how all public schools (and even all other schools as far as I know) have uniforms for their students. Every school’s uniform is unique to their school and always has the school name somewhere on it, usually over the left-side chest. I’ve been told that the reason they have the school uniforms is to cultivate a shared identity and school pride. Students wear uniforms all the way up through junior college and polytechnics (ages 17-18). 

I don’t have any pictures of Singapore students in uniform, but my own kids wear uniforms to their school and they’re basically representative of the norm here.

In my commuting to schools and in the schools I’ve visited, I’ve noted that girls must wear uniform skirts; there’s no option of slacks or shorts for them. Boys in Sec1 and Sec2 (7th-8th grade) must wear uniform shorts and older boys wear uniform slacks. The regular uniform shirts are button down, while the PE uniforms are usually collared, polyester. Also, each student is assigned to a house named after a constellation, and their PE uniform is a color specific to that house. 

I can’t help but think that none of this would fly in Chicago. I know that some schools have uniform, but there’s no way that CPS could implement a district-wide policy of school uniforms, even if the schools themselves could design and choose their individual uniforms. And, if girls were forced to wear skirts everyday, there would be a revolt. This difference in approach to student school wear is indicative of the cultural differences between Singapore and US/Chicago. Some of what MOE encourages/implements/imposes is transferable and some of it is not.