A 35-year-old Pretoria parent paid R1,800 at the beginning of the year for her son's grade R uniform which was sourced exclusively from a supplier appointed by the school.

The parent has welcomed a decision by the Competition Commission forcing schools to have a more generic uniform obtainable from various suppliers.

The parent said her son goes to Nova Pioneer Primary School in Pretoria and she had to pay R1,800 for two golf T-shirts and two shorts from an outsourced school uniform shop.

"I still need to buy tracksuits, shoes and swimwear. The shorts and the golf T-shirts would cost me way lesser if I were to buy them from Pep stores. However, we don't have that opportunity as we are forced to buy from the school shop," she said.

Her situation might change as the Competition Commission reached a consent agreement between them and a group of private schools.

AdvTech Ltd, St Andrew's School for Girls NPC, St Andrews School Uniform Shop Trust, Curro Holdings Ltd, Grit Procurement Solutions (Pty) Ltd and Inspired Schools (Pty) Ltd trading as Reddam House Schools and Reddford House Schools appeared before the competition tribunal on anti-competitive behaviour around their school uniforms.

Last year, the Competition Commission discovered that schools are defying the department of basic education instruction by entering into exclusive agreements with suppliers of school uniforms.

This was one of the findings of the Competition Commission survey which led to investigating alleged anti-competitive behaviour in the supply of uniforms to schools.

The commission had sampled 1,595 schools, 287 school governing bodies and 414 parents and found that a third of private schools and former Model C schools indicated they had exclusive school uniform deals with uniform suppliers.

From those with exclusive uniform deals, 87% of private schools and 53% of former Model C schools have one supplier.

Commissioner Tembinkosi Bonakele said the schools had undertaken to improve competition in the market for the supply of school uniforms and reducing school uniform prices for parents.

"We did all this because when schools enter into exclusive agreements with these suppliers or retailers, it means that these service providers are the only place where parents can buy uniform items. This creates a risk of the supplier charging excessive prices as it does not face competition from any other suppliers," Bonakele said.

Confidence Dikgole, director of policy and government at the National Association of Independent Schools, said: "When we first heard about the probe it was a shock, but now we have welcomed the decision by Competition Commission. We understand that schools cannot limit suppliers."