A neutral school uniform is ‘beneficial to all', committee hears
Members of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission put to MLAs that there should not be a requirement for boys and girls to dress differently.
It came during an examination of the School Uniforms (Guidelines and Allowances) Bill.
The Bill, which was introduced at the Northern Ireland Assembly by Education Minister Paul Givan, aims to make school uniforms more affordable, and includes scope for a potential uniform price cap to be set in future.
Giving evidence to the committee on Tuesday morning, Colin Caughey, director of public policy at the commission, recommended that the word inclusivity be added to clause two of the Bill in terms of setting out what it intends to do.
Chief Commissioner Alyson Kilpatrick said times have changed.
'A lot of girls now will say they are much more comfortable wearing a neutral uniform and not being required to wear skirts for example,' she told MLAs.
'That would fall within inclusivity. All children should feel comfortable.'
Sinn Fein MLA Pat Sheehan asked for a view on including an option for girls to wear trousers instead of skirts to be included in the Bill to make it compliant with human rights law.
Ms Kilpatrick said: 'It's clear that to require girls to wear skirts and boys to wear trousers or shorts, that is distinguishing between boys and girls for reason that isn't easily justifiable, certainly not anymore.
'It seems to me that there shouldn't be a requirement that boys and girls dress differently if the school wants to be inclusive, and if the department wants to require schools to be inclusive.
'There are all sorts of reasons why a neutral uniform would be beneficial to everybody.'
The Bill is to make it a legal requirement for the Department of Education to make guidelines for schools; and for schools to follow those guidelines, addressing unfair costs aspects regarding their uniform requirements.
But Ms Kilpatrick said she fears the Bill is too vague to bring any change in terms of the affordability of school uniforms.
'If you want something to happen, if you want it to change, there has to be specificity about what it is you're trying to change… if you simply say this is our idea of what might be appropriate then you're maybe giving too much discretion and allowing for a continuation of what happened before,' she said.
'Once you have made the decision as the department that you want things to change, I think you need to be prescriptive because nothing will change otherwise, and it becomes inconsistent across schools and what you have is a difficulty for the department to monitor what is happening at schools.
'Guidelines help, but guidelines must be, if they're going to change anything, statutory. You either have to have a statutory obligation to comply with the guidelines or you have it in the statutes so everyone knows exactly what it is that is being asked of them.
'If you want to see change, you have to be a lot clearer, and make it a requirement.'
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