The STUDENT dress code at secondary schools will be enforced once again.
After a meeting last week, principals agreed to recommit to the rules which were established back in September 2008 and had the full approval of the Ministry of Education.
These rules fully outline the length of skirts and overalls for female students which must be two inches or five centimetres below the knee and must not be worn tight.
They also stipulate that male students must wear their pants at the waist and they must be not be oversized nor baggy, or tight around the ankle.
The rules also prohibit tattoos, nail polish and make-up, as well as elaborate hairstyles, and fully detail the type of shoes which are to be worn.
At the meeting of the Barbados Association of Principals of Public Secondary Schools the issue of the dress code and the recent stand taken by two principals – Matthew Farley of the Garrison Secondary School and Vincent Fergusson of Coleridge & Parry School – to send students back home for dress code infringements came to the fore.
Association president Winston Crichlow confirmed that the principals had recommitted themselves to the enforcement of the rules and guidelines at the meeting.
“All prinicipals agreed they will enforce these rules. For example, it is said the girls’ overalls must be two inches below the knee. We will not be taking a rule and measuring, but we want to make sure their knees are covered. Once they are long enough and well covered we are satisfied.
“We recognise that children grow and we don’t want a case where by the third term they outgrow their uniforms,” he said.
Farley recently suspended 112 students for breaches in the dress code. He gave them five days to correct the problem, but reported that most were back in the classroom by day three.
Repeated efforts to reach Crichlow for a comment were unsuccessful.
Crichlow said he was satisfied, after consultation with the two principals, that they had gone about the exercise in a “logical and reasonable manner”.
“They have written to the parents, spelt out clearly what the school’s dress codes are. They have even had meetings with parents of the offending students, and they have given the parents adequate time to correct the dress infringement,” he added.
The National Council of Parent-Teacher Associations, says its president Rhonda Blackman, has backed fully the principals, noting that the heads were responsible for enforcing the school’s rules and regulations.
Blackman said parents needed to work closely with principals to ensure the dress code was met.
“Parents need to get back in control and take charge of their children,” she said.
Two years ago the Ministry of Education endorsed the rules set out by BAPPS, which were meant to complement and not replace those of the individual schools or the ministry itself.
