By Nishala Rasiah
Recently, AIS began permitting girls to have an option of wearing pants to school instead of the traditional skirt. This itself is a huge step for equality and inclusivity within our school. The inclusion of pants gives girls who have ever found the skirt to be uncomfortable, irritable or just not their style an alternative solution.
Now you may be wondering, how did such an impactful change come about? To find out, I was able to interview our Principal, Sir Harshana Perera and this is what he said.
Sir stated that it all began when he had received an email with a compelling argument from a student in Middle school. This email had persuaded Sir and he decided to speak to the Heads of Sections on their opinions regarding the topic of pants for girls. Most of them had agreed with this statement as the pants would still allow school girls to maintain uniformity as well as comfort. Sir also stated that with these modern times where girls are more often seen in pants, it was only natural that AIS included them as well.
Since we were on this topic, I also asked sir what impression he hopes that this introduction of pants gives about AIS.
“AIS has always been a school that recognized inclusivity” he proudly says. Sir continues to mention how AIS aims to accommodate their diverse range of students and teachers as much as possible, and pants for girls is an addition to this.
Sir Harshana also conveys the fact that the value of the school uniform is significant. It emphasizes the community which is the school as well as unity amongst the students and also aids in maintaining the uniqueness of the individual students.
So that’s it! That’s how the girl’s pants came about. And now for a closer look into how it actually is to wear the pants, I decided to ask our very own President of Scoop about her thoughts.
1.What do you personally think of this sudden change?
I think it’s awesome, and it’s a great step forward. Even if most girls still chose to wear the skirt, having the freedom to wear whichever is important and promotes inclusivity.
2.How are the pants compared to the skirt in terms of comfortability and mobility and such?
Call me shallow but I think the skirt is cuter (I’m a big fan of skirts in general) but I do like wearing the pants on days where I feel like it!
3. What changes like this would you like to see further on?
Personally, I believe that clothes shouldn’t be restricted by gender. It would be great if we had a policy in which anyone, regardless of gender, could wear what they want: skirt or pants. We have a long way to go for that, but as a school we’ve made a big step by allowing girls to wear pants and I think we should definitely celebrate that.
And that’s it! That’s your inside scoop on how our school took a big step forward in their ambition of creating a more comfortable and inclusive environment for their diverse range of students.
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