Back to school sales slow

WITH more than three weeks to go before schools reopen on September 3, book and uniform stores reported a drop in sales when compared to last year.

In downtown Port of Spain on Tuesday, parents and their children swarmed the streets as they went from store to store looking for bargains. However, the majority of parents told Newsday they are looking at buying second-hand books because they could not afford new ones from the book stores.

One parent from Princes Town who only gave her name as Karen, said she was looking for bargains. “I have four boys to send to school this term and all the books from the older ones cannot be reused because they changed the edition. I now have to see if I can buy second-hand books to make ends meet and also to ensure all of them have what they need for school.

“So far the prices on the uniforms are reasonable and my boys are all excited to return to school and to have their younger brother join them.” Kelly Barrington, said his two daughters attend Carenage Girls’ Government Primary School and after walking around for most of the day, he noticed an estimated 15 per cent hike in the prices of school books.

“Every year book prices are getting higher and higher, and it is really harder to fund.”

However, Raj Balkram, department manager at Ishmael M Khans and Sons Ltd book store, said he expects sales to increase by the end of the month. He does not agree that there has been an increase in book prices.

“This year some of the prices went down and a lot of the prices remained the same.”

At Mohammed’s Book Store, a supervisor who only give his name as Kerry, said sales are extremely low and he expects things to pick up with last-minute shoppers.

“We try to have the prices at a reasonable level. Right now, due to the recession, a lot of people looking at how they spend their money. This year, sales are slower than last year because more shoppers are looking at the bargains given to them from those who are selling books on the streets at second-hand prices.”

When contacted, Education Minister Anthony Garcia said the ministry will not purchase new text books to distribute to schools this term.

“There are a number of reasons the ministry is not providing new books this term, one is there are a number of books in the system by our students. It is a school book rental programme where the books are given to the students, and at the end of the academic year they have to return the books to the school and those books become available to students who are moving up to the classes.

“The major issue is that our investigation from last year shows there are an adequate number of books that can be used by students. We have also received information from several parents who said they preferred to purchase their own books.”

Garcia said the ministry is challenged with financial difficulties and is trying to distribute the limited finances in other areas of the ministry.