‘There’s just so much to buy’ – Parents complain about prices of school uniforms

As back-to-school looms, parents are busy rounding up residual funds from the festive season for uniforms and stationery.

But the topic of just how demanding schools have become regarding their uniforms and how much more it is costing parents is drawing a lot of attention.

For parents whose children will this year be in grade 1 and grade 8, entering new schooling environments for the first time, this means a whole new school wardrobe, complete with socks, blazers, jackets and shoes.

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While uniforms that are common in most government-funded schools are available at affordable outlets like Pep and Ackermans, private school and semi-private school options are only available from the school outlet itself or stores like McCullagh & Bothwell.

The experience of parents

The Citizen spoke to two mothers – both with children in primary school – one with a child in a government-funded school, and the other in private-funded facility.

The mother of the child at the private school told The Citizen that when her child officially started ‘big school’ in grade 1, the uniform bill came to around R3,000.

“Prior to that, we paid around R1,300 for stationery. There’s just so much you have to buy. There’s a winter uniform and a summer uniform. Then you also have to buy day-to-day uniforms for each different sport that they chose to play,” she said.

“With private schools that are specific about their uniforms, there are not many outlets from where you can get them. It’s usually monopolised by one franchising outlet and the prices are ridiculous,”

The mother explained that one shirt costs around R200. The shirt is styled like that of a golf shirt.

More generic uniforms at government-funded schools

Meanwhile, the mother with the child at a government-funded school told The Citizen that she shopped at outlets like Pep, where she could get away with a generic white shirt for a grade 1 school boy that cost around R19.

“These shirts still generally need to be customised with the school emblem, which is an additional cost. But it’s affordable enough to do so.

“This is why I also chose to send my child to a government-funded school. These school make allowance for us parents who aren’t able to fund expensive uniforms. Private schools don’t care – you want to send your child there, you must be willing to fork out,” she said.

Anti-competitive behaviour

But this is not what should be happening at either facility. According to media reports, in January 2017, the Competition Commission launched an investigation into allegations of anti-competitive behaviour in the supply of school uniforms.

After finding that uniform prices were being inflated unnecessarily, the commission signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Governing Body Foundation, the National Association of School Governing Bodies, the Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools and the South African National Association of Specialised Education.

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By doing this, it hoped to create guidelines for pro-competitive school procurement. Schools were asked to sign a document declaring that they would follow a competitive bidding process in appointing suppliers for school uniform items; appoint more than one supplier for school uniform items, where it is feasible to do so; limit exclusivity agreements with suppliers, where it is feasible to do so and limit the duration of contracts entered for the supply of school uniform items, ideally to no more than 5 years. 

They were also urged to put measures in place to ensure that the price of school uniform items is reasonable and affordable for parents, including ensuring a reasonable mix of generic versus unique/school-branded uniform items and  selecting generic school uniform items that parents can easily purchase from multiple retailers.