Girls given legal right to wear trousers in schools in Northern Ireland

Girls in Northern Ireland are to be given the legal right to wear trousers in school, with new guidelines requiring that school uniform policies from the 2027/28 academic year onwards must include the option for girls to wear trousers throughout the year, including for physical education.

Education Minister Paul Givan announced the change, saying schools will be banned from prohibiting girls from wearing trousers if they wish to do so. The guidelines are legally binding under the School Uniforms Act, which came into operation earlier this year following a law passed by the assembly aimed at addressing the cost of school uniforms.

“I don’t need to go through the assembly to give effect to this,” Givan said on BBC Radio Ulster’s The Nolan Show. “Today, I am taking that decision, that will be formally communicated, schools will be hearing from me, and as of the next academic year… schools will be required that this has to be available if it is requested upon.”

A reversal after criticism

The announcement has been described by some assembly members as a “U-turn”, with critics arguing the minister had the opportunity to guarantee the right in his own school uniforms legislation but failed to do so. The education committee had previously called on the minister to go further than the existing framework, which already gave girls the legal authority to challenge their schools over uniform policies.

Sinn Féin MLA Cathy Mason described the decision as “a welcome but embarrassing U-turn”. “This is an important win for girls and for all those who campaigned for this simple choice,” she said. “The minister had the opportunity to guarantee this right in his own school uniforms legislation but failed to do so. It should not have required further legislation from the Education Committee to force movement on something so basic.”

Mason added that the right for girls to wear trousers “should never have been controversial and it should not have taken this long”, while welcoming that the minister had finally acted and saying her party would be “watching closely to ensure he follows through and that girls are not let down”.

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Alliance Party education spokesperson and chair of the Education Committee, Nick Mathison, also described the decision as a U-turn and thanked the young campaigners who had “bravely raised their voices” about the issue. He said the committee would carry out full due diligence on the wording of the updated guidelines to ensure all girls were granted the right to wear trousers as part of their school uniform.

Mathison added that Minister Givan would have to explain why it had taken so long to move on the issue, noting that “substantial sums of public money have been spent on drafting legislation to fix his error of judgement” when the change could have been made “with the stroke of a pen”.

Practical details

The change will not apply during the 2026/27 academic year, allowing schools time to adjust their uniform policies. From the start of the 2027/28 school year, uniform policies must include the trouser option for girls throughout the school year and for PE and Games.

A Department of Education statement said the guidelines were designed to ensure that affordability, comfort, practicality and sustainability were at the centre of school uniform policies, alongside the aim of reducing the cost of uniforms for families.

There are already laws on school uniform in Northern Ireland, and Givan had previously said they gave girls the legal authority to challenge their schools over uniform decisions. However, education committee members argued those provisions did not go far enough, prompting the committee to pursue additional legislative measures that ultimately pushed the minister into making the new announcement.

Why it matters

The change touches on a long-running debate about school uniform policies across the UK. In many schools, uniform codes have historically distinguished between boys’ and girls’ attire, with skirts often a mandatory part of girls’ uniforms. For some pupils and families, the requirement to wear skirts has been a source of discomfort, practical difficulty and, in some cases, distress, particularly for trans or gender-nonconforming pupils.

Northern Ireland’s move to make the trouser option a legally binding requirement places it ahead of many schools elsewhere in the UK, where uniform policies are often set at the discretion of individual schools or trusts without a statutory mandate on this specific point. The fact that the guidelines are backed by the School Uniforms Act, which was already designed to address costs, means the change has a statutory foundation rather than being a voluntary code.

What happens next

Schools in Northern Ireland will now have the 2026/27 academic year to update their uniform policies ahead of the new requirement taking effect. The Education Committee has said it will scrutinise the wording of the updated guidelines to ensure the right is granted consistently across all schools. Parents and pupils who encounter schools that fail to comply after the deadline will have the backing of legally binding guidelines under the Act.