DUP blasts 'woke ideology' after Children's Commissioner supports legal right for boys to wear skirts in school

Peter Martin was responding to evidence presented to Stormont’s education committee last week on legislation on school uniforms in Northern Ireland – where the children’s commissioner Chris Quinn said “gender neutrality” is a “key fundamental” of the bill.

An official from the commissioner’s office compared boys in skirts to men wearing kilts in Scotland – arguing that it’s “quite a normal thing”.

The comments come amid a wider debate on whether girls should be allowed to wear trousers instead of skirts, because of concerns about issues such as the criminal offence of upskirting.

There have been calls for the right for girls to wear trousers to be enshrined in legislation currently going through the Assembly. Education minister Paul Givan has brought a bill to ensure “binding guidelines on school uniform policies” and to extend eligibility for school clothing allowances payable by the Education Authority.

However, a proposal to the education Committee by the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People (NICCY) has prompted concerns from North Down MLA Peter Martin.

The body said that new guidance “should propose that one set of uniform requirements should be provided from which pupils may choose, to include trousers and other items - not differentiating uniform requirements by gender”.

Mr Martin, who sits on the education committee, has criticised NICCY’s support for the right of boys to wear skirts in school.

“The purpose of the School Uniform Bill is to tackle the cost of uniforms for families.

“It should not be used to open up a new set of difficulties for schools, or to advance a woke ideology which seems to be embedded within quangos in Northern Ireland. It is also disappointing that no other party either noticed this issue or challenged the Commissioner on it.

“Many schools offer girls a choice between trousers or skirts, but this highlights what can happen if the freedom of schools to take sensible decisions is replaced with legislation that takes no account of gender.

“Offering girls the choice, which is already in place in most schools, is then extended to a demand that boys must be offered the right to wear skirts. Yet this additional demand comes without any logical argument other than a blind adherence militant identify politics.

“Parents need to be aware of the proposal, and the legal right it would introduce. Should it be adopted then parents, principals or Boards of Governors would be powerless to do anything about it”, Mr Martin said.

He said the DUP would continue to oppose “ridiculous proposals” that are completely out of scope of the aims of the bill.

During the education committee last week, officials from NICCY gave evidence on the school uniforms bill. The aim of the legislation is lower the cost of uniforms and to ensure all children feel included in schools by having standard clothing.

Asked by Mr Martin for his view on whether an amendment to ensure that girls had the right to wear trousers should be “across the board”, the Commissioner for Children and Young People Chris Quinn said yes.

“As we said at the start, gender neutrality, inclusivity and equality are key fundamentals to the bill”, the NICCY boss said.

Mr Martin questioned NICCY on whether boys should be allowed to wear skirts. Laura McFall, Participation Officer at NICCY, responded “If they want to”.

"I think we've been clear and that boys aren't asking us to wear skirts. You'll notice that we haven't brought any boys this evening.

“There's no boys expressing interest in coming. While boys agree that there should be uniform equality and that girls should be allowed to wear trousers – they're not telling us that they want to wear skirts.

“If they were, why not? Men wear kilts in Scotland, it's quite a normal thing. Clothes don't impact your ability to learn. I think that's the key point that we're making here. They just don't impact your ability to learn. So therefore, find out what does. What does impact your ability to learn? Being included, feeling respected, feeling part of a community, cohesion, inclusion, that's the most important thing”, Ms McFall said.