STATE schools have been urged to stop copying the expensive school uniform policies of the private sector.
The call comes after recent moves towards the reintroduction of traditional school uniform in some Scottish comprehensives with several adopting formal blazers.
David Farmer, a teacher from Fife, told the AGM of the teachers' union the EIS at Perth, that the move, which was supposed to increase equality between pupils, was having the opposite effect.
He said: "School dress codes are impacting negatively on children and families. The cost of uniform places family budgets under pressure and rather than reduce inequality, which is often claimed as a justification for school dress codes, they actually exacerbate those kind of inequalities.
"Children can easily tell that a black school jumper with a designer label on it carries more social cachet than one from Asda."
Farmer said a survey in Glasgow, which has not yet been published, showed schools were also responsible for enforcing school dress code in a counterproductive way.
He added: "In some schools there is a demerit system for kids who don't wear the school dress code where they are prevented from taking part in trips and activities. That is a negative spiral."
The warning comes after a UK-wide survey earlier this year found families were being left in debt or forced to cut back on basics to meet the cost of school uniforms.
A report by the Children's Society found thousands of pupils were being sent to school wearing ill-fitting clothes because their parents were unable to replace them, while others were sent home for wearing "incorrect" uniforms.
Families spend an average of £316 a year for a child at a state secondary school and £251 for a pupil at a state primary with shoes the most expensive item, the survey found.
The charity said nearly 800,000 pupils go to school with poorly-fitting uniforms, putting them at risk of bullying.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article