Northern Ireland schools must give girls option to wear trousers from next year

Schools in Northern Ireland must give girls the choice to wear trousers as part of their uniforms as well as for PE and games, according to revised guidelines.

From next year schools will no longer be able to prohibit female pupils from wearing trousers, Paul Givan, the country’s education minister, said on Friday. “Today, I am taking that decision, that will be formally communicated, schools will be hearing from me,” he told the BBC.

A law passed last year that was aimed at reducing the cost of uniforms gave girls the legal right to challenge schools that banned them from wearing trousers.

However, campaigners said the change did not go far enough and put pressure on Givan, a Democratic Unionist party member of the Northern Ireland assembly (MLA) who said his own daughters wore skirts to school, to revise the guidelines.

Givan said he had to strike a balance between schools’ autonomy and the level of prescription in departmental guidelines. “I have listened carefully over recent months to young people and the message is clear: girls want the choice to wear trousers as part of their school uniform.”

The revised guidelines will not go into immediate effect to give schools time to update their policies, said Givan.

Other parties welcomed the change but accused the education minister of dragging his feet.

“I’m glad that it appears the minister has seen fit to U-turn on his decision not to ensure that all girls have the right to wear trousers as part of their school uniform,” said Nick Mathison, an Alliance MLA and chair of the Stormont assembly education committee.

“I want to thank all of the young campaigners who have been bravely raising their voices about this, and whose dedication will lead to seeing this wrong righted. The fact that in 2026 young girls and women had to campaign for this at all will not be forgotten.”

Substantial sums of public money were spent on drafting legislation to fix the minister’s error of judgment, Mathison added.

A girl’s right to wear trousers should not have been controversial, said Cathy Mason, a Sinn Féin MLA. “It should not have required further legislation from the education committee to force movement on something so basic.”

Cara Hunter, a Social Democratic and Labour party MLA, said young people who challenged the existing rules and refused to let the issue disappear deserved credit for the change. “The department must now deliver. This cannot be a right that exists on paper but becomes an argument at the school gate,” she said.