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Pressure is mounting for an end to bans on girls wearing trousers to school.

The Equal Opportunities Commission considers unlawful the rules on uniform that dictate girls must wear skirts or dresses.

But teachers say trouser bans for girls remain common and are sometimes also applied to female teaching staff.

Researchers from the University of Hong Kong found senior schoolgirls overwhelmingly opposed bans on trousers.

'There are obvious advantages [to trousers] in terms of convenience and warmth,' the researchers said. 'In this day and age . . . it is very difficult to see why these restrictions are permitted to exist.'

The researchers found more than 86 per cent of Form 4 girls and 91 per cent of Form 6 girls were against the restrictions.

Most boys also opposed such bans - although about 20 per cent still favoured a skirts-only policy and, the researchers concluded, 'may, therefore, be considered stereotypical in their thinking'.

More than 3,100 students were surveyed as part of the EOC-sponsored study, which was the second in less than two years to conclude girls would like to have the choice of wearing trousers to school.

The previous survey found only 53 per cent of male teachers favoured ending bans on trousers for schoolgirls - compared with 64 per cent of female teachers and 60 per cent of schoolgirls.

The researchers who conducted the most recent study recommended that the EOC approach the Education Department to ensure an end to trouser bans across the school system, a move backed by a teachers' union.

However, the EOC claimed the issue had already been dealt with via public education - the commission held a press conference on the issue last year. A commission spokeswoman said their current focus was on changing students' and educational publishers' tendency to stereotype people by gender.

An Education Department spokesman said it supported the principle of equal opportunity but refused to comment specifically on the trousers issue.

The vice-president of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers Union, Lee Lai-ming, supported the researchers' call for the Education Department to act. Most schools insisted that girls wear dresses or skirts, although the culture was changing, she said.

Some schools insisted female staff not only wear skirts but uncomfortably high heels, she said.

A spokeswoman for the Hong Kong International School said trousers and shorts were popular with girls. 'They tend to be able to play on the playgrounds more fiercely,' she said.

But the prospect of relief on gender grounds appears distant for the schoolboys' bugbear - the tie. 'We have never had anyone raise problems with boys wearing ties. This is a generally accepted social convention,' an EOC spokeswoman said.



Poll shows girls want to wear trousers at school