Reader Heather Shaw says school uniforms should be top of the list of most expensive items to buy in New Zealand.
Have your say on the issue by posting in the comments below.
Re cost of living (News, June 14). School uniforms should be top of the list of most expensive items to buy in New Zealand.
Surely it is an absolute scandal that schools are allowed to use monopolies to supply their uniform, charge whatever they like and parents have to comply.
Many families are having to pay out at least $300 at a time to clothe their kids in the basic school uniform.
The kids are growing fast so this can be an annual expense.
Multiply this by the number of children in a family, divide by the average wage and work out how many hours the average parent has to work just to pay for school uniforms. This money would be much better spent on other things children need such as healthy food, keeping warm and doing sports.
On top of this, the supplier is only open on Saturday mornings. You make the effort to go to the other side of town and guess what - they have no medium size in stock.
Someone should stand up against it. It's not necessary and not fair on families.
(Abridged)
- Heather Shaw, Papamoa