New guidelines will require all schools in Northern Ireland to offer girls the option to wear trousers as part of their uniform.
Education Minister Paul Givan said the revised guidance will allow girls to wear trousers as part of their uniform and also for PE and games.
Sinn Féin MLA Cathy Mason has described the decision as a “welcome but embarrassing U-turn by the minister”.
Education Committee chairman Nick Mathison said the minister will have to explain why he “took so long to move on this issue”.
The guidelines are legally binding under the School Uniforms Act which came into operation earlier this year.
This reminds me of discussions we had to write in school. The “expensive brands” argument was always the only somewhat viable pro-argument for school uniforms.
Otherwise, school uniforms are absolutely terrible for poor families and are often used as a way to keep lower classes out if certain schools. Even if there’s a second hand market it still means you have to buy additional sets of clothes. Buying second hand uniforms may also be as embarrassing for a child than wearing off-brand clothes.
I my school days it wasn’t common to mock kids about off-brand clothes. People buying to much branded stuff were more commonly the the target. I knew a kid who came to school with a fake Addidas jacket that said “Aadidas”. Eveyone thought it was cool for being so obviously fake. Expensive phones were important though, even in the late 1990s and 2000s.
“It seems for the very poor/marginalized in any society, uniform can be simply another barrier to education because of the focus on equality, not equity. Ironically, those most in need of education may be denied it via a mechanism that was originally instituted to remove barriers to education.” https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8386814/
I suspect you’re too America focussed. If uniforms are so bad, why are they standard in so many of the world’s poorest countries?
In South Africa, all government schools have uniforms. So there is no excluding someone because they can’t afford a uniform.
Also, there is a lot of overlap betweem school uniforms i.e. lots of grey skirts / shorts / trousers, plus white shirts with the school badge sewn onto the pocket. These clothes are made in huge quantities and sold everywhere.
Also, why would you need to buy extra clothes? You can just wear the uniform all day.
I’m European.
I don’t claim they are generally bad. I said that the argument with “branded clothes” isn’t a very good one and school uniforms can very well be used to exclude poorer students. And I included a link to a study to back that up.
The main reason why many poorer countries have school uniforms is exactly what you say: so that poorer kids and minorities don’t stick out. Whether this really works or helps in any way is a whole different thing.
I just needed a two second internet search to tell me that the financial burden school uniforms put on families is a discussed topic in South Africa. There’s this report for example: https://lrc.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/LRC-School-Uniform-Research-Report.pdf (FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF CURRENT UNIFORM PRACTICES, pages 22 etc.) or this news report: https://capetown.today/news/the-outfit-dilemma-evaluating-school-dress-regulations-and-human-rights-in-south-africa
And are still going to be more expensive than everyday clothes.
Now you are just being silly. Kids do not want to be associated with their school all day, even less their whole youth including days off. Parents don’t want kids to ruin their school clothes, especially if they are poor. Not to mention that most uniforms are not inteded for kids to play in them, as they often include leather shoes or skirts.