No uniformed start to new school year Loop Barbados

Black Immigrant Daily News

Students will be allowed to wear a plain-coloured t-shirt or a plain-coloured polo shirt and jeans pants at the start of the new school year on Monday, September 19.

Alerted of the challenges retailers face in supplying uniforms, Minister of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, Kay McConney announced today the Ministry will be relaxing the regulations for students who are unable to wear the full uniform until September 30.

“The Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training has decided to relax the regulations to our school uniform policy, until September 30th, 2022, after which it will be reviewed.

“This means that if your child is unable to wear the full school uniform, new or re-used, from the first day of school on September 19th, he or she will be allowed to dress in a manner appropriate for school in a plain-coloured t-shirt or a plain-coloured polo shirt and a jeans pants. Note that this relaxation is for a limited time until uniform fabrics are available,” Minister McConney announced.

The official start of the academic school year is less than one week away, but parents have expressed difficulty obtaining uniform fabric as well as pre-made school uniforms.

The education minister reported that retailers have informed her that the shortage of fabric has slowed down the manufacturing of uniforms.

“I am told that several factors in the supply chain have contributed to the delay in uniform fabrics reaching Barbados – among them, the intermittent shutdown of several factories where the fabric is made overseas; slow consolidation of shipments due to transportation challenges between multiple cities; and shipping connections that were held back when a vessel bringing the shipments to Barbados was delayed getting privileges to berth at one of the transit countries in this region where it had to stop before coming to Barbados. All of this is outside of the control of Barbados, of the Ministry of Education, of the schools, and of our uniform manufacturers, retailers, tailors and dressmakers,” Minister McConney added.

She noted that the chief education officer will be communicating with principals at the respective schools so that they can work with students, parents and guardians to facilitate a smooth return to full face-to-face classes.

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