School's 'refugee-themed' day slammed as 'insensitive'
A school in New Zealand has courted controversy after reportedly asking students to wear tattered clothes for a refugee-themed day.
Middleton Grange School, in Christchurch, reportedly asked students to wear ragged clothing on Thursday to raise money for World Vision, Stuff.co.nz reports.
The school sent out a newsletter to parents “asking children to dress as refugees in old ragged clothes if possible” as a way to develop “understanding and compassion” of what it feels like to be poor.
The school’s principal Richard Vanderpyl told Newshub the school had only received two complaints.
"In actual fact they [parents] used the opportunity to talk to their children about what is happening in other places of the world and just the hardship that some of these children face, so in that sense it's been a really good opportunity,” he said.
"We've also structured it so that our teachers did ask questions in the classroom so it wasn't just, 'let’s all wear these clothes and leave it at that'. There was a very strong teaching around it so our pupils became very aware.”
In a statement he added 75 per cent of students wore the clothing.
But Race Relations Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy told the Otago Daily Times while “dress as refugees” day was well-intentioned it was also ignorant.
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"While a refugee living in a camp might not have many luxuries or provisions, even when they turn up in this country they often have very little, in reality they're often professional people,” she said.
"It's continuing that stigma that refugees are poor people that come from impoverished backgrounds."
Morning radio show presenter Aziz Al-Sa’afin, who came to New Zealand as a child refugee, said he applauded the school for raising awareness but said dressing “like a refugee” is “extremely insensitive”.
"There are so many avenues, dressing 'poor' certainly shouldn't be one of them. If this is the school's process of education surround refugees, quite frankly it's misguided and they need to re-think their curriculum,” he said.
