Introduction

Abstract

In 2012, the Turkish Ministry of National Education (MoNE) decided to abolish the regulation that school uniforms must be worn in primary, middle and high schools. The parties who were against the ending of this policy argued that school uniforms conceal socio-economic differences among pupils, thereby helping the poor to fit in with their peers and promoting equal educational opportunities (e.g., Çağlayan 2012; Milliyet 2012). As a counterargument, MoNE representatives pointed to the fact that, with the implementation of address-based school registration in 2009, children attend the same schools as their neighborhood friends, who have the same socio-economic backgrounds.