The Competition Commission is intensifying efforts to ensure the cost of school uniforms become “reasonable and affordable” for parents through an extensive advocacy targeted at parents, school governing bodies, retailers and schools.
In February last year, the commission signed agreements with several private schools following constructive engagements and cooperation by the schools, including Curro, Advtech and Reddam House.
School governing bodies – led by the Federation of Governing Bodies of South Africa, as well as the Independent Schools of Southern Africa – made a public pledge to adhere to the school uniform guidelines aimed at curbing anticompetitive behaviour.
The guidelines were intended to ensure that school uniforms are reasonably priced.
The commission on Wednesday said it continues to engage further with all stakeholders including private schools, suppliers, governing bodies and the government to ensure compliance with the guidelines, as well as adequate monitoring and oversight.
School uniform guidelines include that the school uniform should be as generic as possible such that it is obtainable from as many suppliers as possible, and that exclusivity should be limited to items that the schools regard as necessary to obtain from pre-selected suppliers, like badges.
Additionally, the commission said schools should endeavour to follow a competitive bidding process when appointing suppliers, adding that schools should appoint more than one supplier to give parents more options.
The concluded agreements should also be of limited duration.
The commission is interacting with various schools to assist with capacity building, while establishing and maintaining the necessary expertise to monitor and manage anticompetitive conduct with regard to school uniforms.
This includes the phasing out of exclusive agreements and evergreen contracts, and means that the process of introducing reasonable and affordable prices will be gradual in some instances.
Parents are also urged to continue to monitor anticompetitive conduct in schools and must insist on the governing bodies implementing the uniform guidelines.
“The success of the initiative to bring reasonable and affordable uniform depends largely on involved and active parents. If governing bodies manage schools on behalf of the parents, it cannot be that parents must bear the brunt of expensive prices,” the commission said in its statement.
In instances where there is noncompliance with the Competition Act, the commission indicated that it would take appropriate action, particularly as bringing down the cost of school uniform remains the priority.