School uniform policy’s adverse impact on equity and access to schooling

Research on the effect of school uniforms on school attendance in low income countries is scarce. Building on a meta-analysis of the available literature, this paper analyses primary survey data collected (n = 462) in Mongolia on students’ perceptions of school uniforms. The findings reveal that it is not only the cost of uniforms that matters, but also poor students’ feelings of exclusion when the majority of students in a school wear uniforms. The poor drop out from school when their symbolic association with the majority is visibly broken through their inability to afford and wear school uniforms. The study suggests that school uniform policies in low income countries are fraught with complications. Instead of creating cohesion, such policies are more likely to affect poor students’ negative perceptions of themselves and play a strong role in dropout rates.