Parents buying school uniforms. Picture: Simone Kley/African News Agency (ANA)
Exorbitant school uniform prices and not enough school uniform suppliers are becoming an issue for parents and guardians.
A Cape Town parent recently took to social media and complained about the uniform shop at a certain school being closed until January 7 and how the school still operated with one supplier.
Speaking to IOL, the parent, who asked to remain anonymous, said the competition commission ruling on school uniforms was issued in 2021 but to date nothing has been enforced.
“We feel like the ruling was supposed to be a victory for parents who want to get their kids into school,” the parent said.
The competition commission ruling stated that schools can no longer force parents to buy their children’s school uniform at a specific supplier.
The ruling came after the commission’s investigation into several schools, school uniform manufacturers and suppliers for possible contraventions of the Competition Act.
Despite the ruling, the parent said there should not be a total scrapping of uniforms at a school “but the answer should be affordable uniforms because it becomes a greater final convenience to parents as opposed to trying to keep up with trends and expose children who don’t have much to buy the branded items.”
The parent added that there were not many multiple suppliers as was claimed in the ruling. But the main concern and cry for the parent was that foundation-phase pupils grow faster than normal and having to buy school jackets that cost a lot two or three times a year was a strain on her budget.
Some of the principles governing the guidelines included:
- The school uniform should be as generic as possible so that it is obtainable from as many suppliers as possible.
- Where deemed necessary, exclusivity should only be limited to a few “must” items that the schools regard as necessary to obtain from preselected suppliers, such as the school badge. Where there are approved suppliers, schools should follow a competitive bidding process when appointing such suppliers.
- Schools should appoint more than one supplier to give parents more options.
- Concluded agreements should be of limited duration so that schools can continuously check the market to obtain the best offering for parents.
kamogelo.moichela@inl.co.za
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