Member's statement: School Uniform: Trousers
Member's statement by Mr Nick Mathison on .
- MLA
- Mr Nick Mathison
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 15 September 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- School Uniform: Trousers
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5705480
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I, too, want to speak to the ministerial U-turn on the right of all pupils to wear trousers as part of their school uniform. There is no doubt that the change that will be brought in is welcome. I open my remarks by paying tribute to the pupil campaigners who worked so hard to profile the issue. Rhea and Astrid in particular, whom many of you will have seen presenting evidence to the Education Committee, deserve immense credit for the work that they put in. While it was entertaining to listen to the Education Minister making jokes in the Chamber yesterday about the fact that we all needed to cheer up and should not feel disappointed, we should not overlook the seriousness of the issue, because the fact that the change has come so late represents a failure on the part of the Minister. He stood on the sidelines and watched while the Education Committee took forward an issue that young people clearly wanted to see delivery on: the option of wearing trousers as part of their school uniform. He sat on his hands, allowed public money to be spent and allowed officials' time in the Assembly to be wasted on delivering a Bill on a issue that, as we have said repeatedly throughout the process, he could have sorted with the stroke of a pen. While it is all very entertaining to be urged to cheer up by the Minister, it is not appropriate to take such a laissez-faire attitude to using Assembly resources in that way. It is clear that the Minister found himself unable to defend his position of denying girls the right to have that choice because it was not being offered in all schools. Simply requiring schools to consult on their school uniform policy is not the same. Let us be clear: they could consult all they like, but they did not have to act on what the consultation fed back. The ministerial promises that he had already delivered that choice and we just had not realised it do not stand up to scrutiny. The delay from the Minister has also meant that pupils in this academic year — girls who, in their evidence to the Committee, said that one of the biggest issues is that they just want to be warm in the winter months — may be in a school that does not afford them that opportunity. Again, the Minister can crack jokes in the Chamber about everybody needing to cheer up, but there are real-world consequences of his delay. We need to be clear about the precise detail of what the Minister has brought in. I want to assure myself that the changes go far enough and do not leave wriggle room for schools. It is vital that the right that is delivered is clear and unequivocal. Finally, there is much work to be done on school uniform policy beyond the issue of the right to wear trousers. Costs continue to be unacceptably high. We really need to see clear and serious action to address the issue of cost. We were promised that the Minister's Bill would deliver that. Right now, I am not hearing from parents that they are feeling it in their pockets.
543 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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