Emma DeSouza: Time to expel the outdated school uniform
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With the number of children attending non-uniform schools in Ireland increasing each year, what function do mandatory uniforms serve toward bettering young people’s experiences or quality of education in the classroom?
A typical school uniform consists of a shirt, tie, jumper, blazer, and trousers or, for girls, a skirt. How many of us are required to wear a shirt, tie, and blazer every day in the workplace? Would working in rigid, often uncomfortable clothing make any of us work better? The overwhelming majority of workplaces no longer enforce a dress code — political leaders don’t even have one — so if it is okay to wear sportswear while representing the people in Dáil Éireann, shouldn’t it be okay for young people to wear their own clothes at school?
Proponents of school uniforms argue that uniforms decrease bullying and inequality in schools — a view which is not corroborated by empirical evidence. If uniforms are so effective at reducing bullying, then why are as many as 44% of young people in Ireland still experiencing peer violence at school?
A 2018 Unicef survey revealed that 44% of Irish teenagers experience peer violence, with 28% of 13–15-year-olds experiencing at least one form of bullying in the months prior to the survey. That same year, a Statista survey of bullying in European schools demonstrated a correlation between mandatory school uniforms and increased levels of bullying.
Only eight out of the 41 countries surveyed enforce a uniform policy; Russia, Malta, and Latvia are in the top five regions with the highest rates of bullying, while the remaining five countries all occupy the upper 50th percentile worldwide. By contrast, the countries with the lowest rate of bullying — Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands — do not enforce school uniforms as the norm. A 2019 survey from youth mental health organisation Jigsaw, also revealed that 39% of secondary school respondents had experienced bullying.
The systemic nature of bullying in Irish schools is so pervasive that Education Minister Norma Foley has brought forward new measures to increase reporting and training. Schools will be obligated to record all incidents of bullying behaviour going forward, with the results intended to be fed into an anonymised annual report.
With regard to inequality, it is nothing short of a romantic notion to believe that uniforms remove social class from schools; the extortionate prices of branded uniforms place an unnecessary burden on families, with many relying on hand-me-downs or pre-loved items while other students own the latest on-trend — and often expensive — shoes or bags.
Dating back to 16th century England, school uniforms have been commonplace in countries such as Ireland, Australia, India, and Cyprus — notably all former British colonies, whereas in most European countries and the United States, students are not required to wear uniforms in public schools. Advocates for uniforms have not been able to establish clear evidence to suggest wearing them serves any purpose; research indicates a uniform has no impact on academic achievement. Their purpose is less about educational outcomes and more about the hidden curriculum of teaching conformity and discipline.
At present, there are over 37,000 young people enrolled across 117 Educate Together schools in Ireland, which notably do not impose a school uniform policy. When the debate on scrapping uniforms emerges, opponents suggest that allowing young people to wear the clothes they already own would lead to a “fashion catwalk” and create a nightmare in the mornings. What we need to hear more about are the experiences of young people and educators in schools that don’t enforce a uniform policy. Young people — alongside the rest of us — have comfort clothes; once the momentary novelty has worn off and the experience is normalised, one would expect young people, too, should broadly slump into wearing what is most comfortable, a choice I believe young people should be allowed to make for themselves. There are also several steps which schools can endeavour to take to decrease the designer clothing race; many schools in Europe have bans on designer labels.
If we cannot establish irrefutable evidence that school uniforms provide tangible benefits for young people, then why, as a society, do we continue to cling to them? Uniforms are inherently designed to remove any concept of the individual. They can reinforce outdated gender norms and infringe on religious freedoms. What sense is there teaching children about critical thinking while simultaneously telling them that they must conform to an outdated militarized dress code rooted in conservative ideology? How much time is spent policing school uniforms rather than simply educating young people, and taking measured steps to identify and address the sociocultural influences and behaviours that contribute towards bullying?
Ultimately, the debate about school uniforms is a debate about the kind of society we want to live in. Will it be a society that embraces diversity and celebrates individual freedom and creativity? Or one which clings to conservative concepts of conformity, introduced by a historical colonialist oppressor? More and more young people are attending uniform-free schools in Ireland, isn’t it time the rest followed suit?