Schools across the UAE welcomed students back on Monday, 31 August, and parents have spent the past weeks working through their back-to-school shopping lists. One Dubai mother has now started a wider conversation about an expense many families find hard to swallow: school uniforms.

The mother said she was shopping for her children's uniforms when she questioned why they had become, in her words, so expensive. She said two formal shirts, one for her daughter and one for her son, cost her AED 180 in total, even though the children may outgrow them within a year.

The costs kept adding up. A pair of plain black PE trousers cost AED 110, while a simple grey school sweater carrying the school logo also came with an AED 110 price tag.

For her, the issue was not whether she could afford the items, but the principle of paying so much for basic schoolwear, particularly as school fees also fall due at the end of August.


(Source: Lovin Dubai)