Directions: Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow by choosing the correct/most appropriate options:

Nowhere in the long history of education can you find evidence to say that a school uniform is a factor in learning. Yet, a lot of people today cannot imagine a school without a uniform. When they think about a school, including their own, they think about the uniform that makes its children distinct from the children of other schools. Especially on festive occasions when grand events bring all the schools of a city together, people find something deeply edifying in the spectacle of children marching or displaying their smartness by wearing a distinct uniform. The public fascination with such spectacles, and the history of the school uniform, point to the single most important role that a school uniform plays: it helps in the regimentation of the young. Uniformly dressed children constitute one of the two archetypal metaphors of schooling. One is that of a garden where different flowers bloom; the other is of an army of little soldiers marching together.

If you divide the world into countries that have a compulsory uniform in their schools and countries that do not, history starts to reveal itself. Systems of education that evolved under colonial rulers of different types generally favor strict enforcement of the school uniform. That includes us.

If you strain popular memories and scan old photographs, you will find that the idea of a school uniform has spread with urbanization, prosperity, and privatization. Rural and small-town schools seldom insisted on a daily uniform in the early years of Independence. It was required on certain days of the week and on special days. Gradually, when different types of private schools started, they demanded every day wearing of the prescribed uniform. The supply of uniforms for children of different schools offered business opportunities for local cloth merchants, tailors, and shoe stores. Instead of offering competitive pricing, the uniform business encouraged local monopolies. In many cases, the schools assented to participate and asked parents to patronize a particular source.