TWO decided Enniskillen pupils are persevering with their push for better equality in colleges, calling for women to have the authorized proper to put on trousers as a part of their college uniform.
As beforehand reported by the ‘Herald, Astrid Knox and Rhea Donnell, each aged 12, have been advocating for the change since final yr.
Starting with their main college, Enniskillen Integrated, the place they efficiently lobbying to provide women the choice to put on trousers, the pair’s mission has grown right into a marketing campaign for laws throughout the North.
The women returned to Stormont this month with NI Children’s Commissioner Chris Quinn to current their case to the Northern Ireland Assembly’s Committee for Education.
Their proposal is to amend the School Uniforms (Guidelines and Allowances) Act (Northern Ireland) 2026 to ensure that every one colleges permit women the selection to put on trousers.
Supported by Youth Panel member Maddison Blair, who led an analogous marketing campaign 5 years in the past, Astrid and Rhea are difficult outdated uniform insurance policies and inspiring colleges to rethink conventional costume codes.
The marketing campaign has already sparked wider dialogue on equity, consolation, and gender equality in colleges.
Commissioner Quinn praised the scholars for their dedication, linking their marketing campaign to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which incorporates the rights to play, privateness, and non-discrimination.
He emphasised that kids’s views on issues affecting them have to be taken significantly and referred to as on college management to hearken to their issues.
In the North, college uniforms are usually not ruled by laws, leaving colleges to find out their very own insurance policies.
Department of Education steering advises that uniforms ought to be ‘fair and reasonable’ and ‘practical, comfortable and appropriate,’ whereas offering worth for cash to households.
Astrid and Rhea at the moment are calling on mother and father, educators, and fellow college students to help their initiative, aiming to make college uniforms extra inclusive and fashionable.
