With the beginning of the new school year now just over a week away, the Stabroek Business this week took its customary ‘test’ of the commercial temperature in downtown Georgetown as parents continue to ‘cough up’ the millions of dollars that it will take to get their children back into the classroom.
Parents who customarily finance the purchasing of supplies for the new school year from specially set aside savings or make their purchases over several months beginning perhaps at the end of June, will find that once again this year they would have come out ahead of their counterparts who have opted to place the entire burden on their August earnings. By the middle of this week we found that downtown stores and pavement vendors alike had shifted their attention more seriously to offering school supplies. Our own assessment is that those parents who have opted to wait to make all of their purchases between this weekend and the next will have to pay more – perhaps as much as between five and eight per cent more in some cases.
Our estimate, based on a modest survey done over the past eight to ten days, suggests that those numbers might be considerable. Up to Wednesday of this week we had spoken to thirty two parents found browsing in the city and nineteen of them had told us, some with decidedly long faces, that they had opted to burden their August earnings with the entire range of back to school purchases.
At least half of our informants had three children so that we have determined as well that when uniforms, footwear, stationery and lunch kits are all taken account of, it could cost an average of twenty thousand dollars per child to have our children back in the classroom this year – that assumes, of course that our children’s addiction to ludicrously expensive ‘brand name’ footwear will not be over-indulged this year. A pair of the high-end brands could cost $1000 and those are not the highest prices. Nor will those parents of children preparing for CXC examinations be pleased to learn that some texts will set them back at least $7,000 – again this is a relatively modest price this year.
Every year the merchants and vendors alike take a bit more for themselves on school supplies. Little has changed. Stabroek Business found instances in which notebooks, exercise books, pens, socks, hair ribbons, vests and underwear had all seen price increases – some sufficiently marginal as to not attract a great deal of attention. In other cases the increase was more noticeable.
Those that particularly caught our eye were hard-covered exercise books which were being offered at some stores at $200 each – as against prices ranging from between $160 and $180 last year. On the pavements, while socks could, in some cases, still be found at $100 per pair, some vendors had discreetly added $20 (in some instances $30) to a pair of socks. Earlier this week we actually encountered an interesting exchange among some shoppers and a vendor about the ethics of raising prices on old stock.
Buying school shoes has increasingly become a challenge in Guyana. Last year we had found that while it was possible to acquire a pair of regulation shoes for around $3,000 you were likely to have to spend up to $1,000 to reinforce the work done by the manufacturers and even so, you were lucky if your children got a full term out of them. Based on our conversations with parents about “bad experiences”, this newspaper is persuaded of the value of investing in the reputable brands which can be found in the arcades and reputable stores at prices which, admittedly, could start at as much as $7,000. We are told, incidentally, that at the prevailing prices parents are well advised to pay attention to the matter of cheaper fake items. For all this our earlier point about the costliness of over-indulging ‘addicted’ children still stands. There is, we have found, a distinguishing line between spending fair sums on shoes that will last and sheer wastefulness.
Up until now we have detected no marked increase in prices for uniforms – blouses and dresses, though the durability of the fabric has become an issue. Arising out of a few conversations with parents on the issue of fabric that fades or ‘washes out’ quickly we believe that there is something to be said for seeking out better quality fabric.
The arcades are usually filled with ready-made school uniforms, particularly for younger children. These are convenient though not necessarily cheaper. They should be pre fitted for comfort and carefully examined for possible flaws,
We have it on good advice that haversack purchases should be undertaken with considerable care. It would appear that their ever-rising popularity among schoolchildren has spawned a plethora of cheaper, less durable brands which, given the volume and weight of books in the Grade Six class, for example, fall apart at the drop of a hat. You may be able to pick up a cheap haversack for under $1,000 but then the question arises as to whether you have made the best buy.
On the whole, care should be taken in the purchase of school supplies. Cheaper brands can end up costing more. Cheap pencils and pens, for example, are often a bad idea though if tried and proven ‘brands’ have worked for children then these should not be changed. It is, however, particularly important that parents not fall prey to “bargains” without first determining whether they are receiving value for money. Repetitive buying of the same school items throughout the academic year can cost a proverbial “arm and a leg.”
We thoroughly regret that the undertaking which we gave to some parents to try to find out more about the Ministry of Education’s $10,000 per child offer to parents of children attending state schools has not been thoroughly successful. As best as we can tell the money will not now be available in time to have it being used before the start of the school. At current prices, however, the amount on offer can make a difference. The Ministry of Education, we expect, will be aiming at disbursement some time during the Christmas term.
