Heads of Gozo state schools were last week asked to warn parents of Year 1 pupils that there are no other uniform distributors other than the one contracted to sell them and it would be at their own risk if they bought the uniforms from another outlet.
Parents who are buying uniforms from other outlets are doing so at their risk and peril
The instruction appears to jar with the policy of the education authorities: that there is no exclusivity in the supply of school uniforms. In Gozo, a second supplier is offering the uniforms for sale.
In a brief “urgent” e-mail, Gozo College principal Frank Gatt told heads of school on the sister island that uniforms for Year 1 pupils would be distributed by the tender-winning Yorkie Clothing on Saturday, October 1, and “there are no other distributors, until further notice”.
He then instructed heads to warn parents that those who were buying their children’s uniform from other outlets were doing so at their “risk and peril”.
Last week, the Education Ministry said that although Yorkie had won the contract to supply state colleges, “nothing stops any other retailer from producing such uniforms and selling them.
“It is not the schools’ fault this opportunity was not availed of by other suppliers,” a ministry spokesman had said, referring to the situation in Malta.
The ministry was replying to criticism by the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority which said the current system left parents “in a very vulnerable position”, forcing them to buy uniform items from exclusive suppliers.
When contacted, Mr Gatt said the e-mail to heads was written in response to several queries from them and from parents on whether they could buy school uniforms from another Gozitan retailer – Terry’s Fabrics – which was offering competitive prices.
Mr Gatt said that, while he was all in favour of competition, he was concerned about the quality of the uniforms if bought from the other outlet. Unlike Yorkie, Terry’s had no contractual obligations with the schools so he could not take any action if a uniform turned out to be faulty or the quality poor.
This was what he meant, he said, when he warned parents they would be buying the uniforms at “their own risk”.
When contacted, the owner of Terry’s Fabrics, Manuel Micallef, said he was confident about the quality of his material.
Last year, he said, he had provided the material to the retailer who made the secondary school uniforms for the Gozo government schools. All uniforms for schools making up the Gozo college are being streamlined to be the same. Old uniforms are being phased out.
Mr Micallef said that, this year, he was using the same material to make the primary school uniforms according to the guidelines and patterns listed in the tender document.
Two Sundays ago, hundreds of parents in Malta flocked to Yorkie in San Ġwann to secure their children’s school uniforms.
Alex Calleja, from Yorkie, said a delay in supply had come about because the government tender process was only concluded on August 17 and the clothing orders shipped the following day. Containers were then held up overseas by events out of his control.
He attributed the chaotic scenes at the San Ġwann outlet to the disorganisation of parents, who did not respect times allotted to them, and to the large number of overweight students. Mr Calleja said he had no problem with other retailers selling school uniforms, provided they adhered to the same financial and garment quality guarantees.
The Education Ministry reiterated that parents were free to decide where to buy the school uniforms and decide on the quality and price they pay.
“The Ministry and the Directorate of Educational Services are not against competition and different retailers can choose to sell uniforms. In fact, the directorate had issued the tender without giving the tenderer exclusivity on the production or sale of the uniform,” a spokesman insisted.