School books too costly

Sundays in Port of Spain are usually quiet with little activity but on the day before school reopened, it seemed like a muted Friday. Some parents, grandparents and relatives ambled into opened book stores throughout Port of Spain, yesterday, looking for items needed for their children.

While for some of the managers and supervisors at the various book stores in Port of Spain sales were steady, for parents the costs of textbooks, both primary and secondary, were challenging.

When Newsday visited Mohammed Book Store Associates Limited, Ishmael M Khan and Sons Ltd on Henry Street and Emdad’s, Excellent Uptown Mall, parents were seen walking around with their children or alone getting uniforms, textbooks and stationery.

Santa Cruz parent Aisha De Bique said to Newsday while she shopped at Emdad’s, “This back to school exercise that parents have to go through every year is very expensive and schools have a tendency to change the books every year.” She has three children and her eldest is almost 17. She wondered how some parents manage with school expenses. She considered herself fortunate to be in a position to manage her expenses with her husband.

Over the years, she said, the cost of buying books and school supplies has increased by as much as 15 per cent.

“And then there is a marked difference between the cost of primary school books versus secondary school books. The secondary school books are quite expensive and when you start talking sixth form that is a different ball game altogether.” Emdad’s manager Fazeela Ali, when asked about the store’s sales, said July was a little bit quiet, but when August “kicked in,” it was very busy. Ali said in the last week people came out to shop.

Ali admitted uniforms have become more expensive over the years.

“Especially for the Port of Spain schools...At the end of the day the principals are making certain decisions without considering the parents’ pockets. In one school for instance, there are three uniforms, two different types of shoes and two different types of socks and the parents have to find the money to buy that as it is mandatory or the child cannot participate,” she said.

She added that there was another school whose shirt was selling for $50, and then it changed and increased to $89.

Another mother, shopping for her son, said she had spent over $3,000 on books alone.

At Mohammed’s Book Store, the store’s supervisor, Kareem Mohammed, said the last two weeks of August saw a steady stream of people shopping for school supplies. However, he added, that customers were still holding back.

At Ishamel M Khan, store clerk Amanda Partap told Newsday that even before July/August vacation some parents came to purchase the necessary school items.

Partap said while there are still some books that were in “short supply,” the store’s faithful customers waited for the books to be replenished.

Partap, too, said there have been complaints from some customers of books being too expensive, but “everybody had the understanding that even though the prices had to go up, like everything else in the country, they have to buy it, so they went ahead and bought the books.”

She said some books may be retuned next week since “they have been giving them the old book list and books have new names for example the Integrated Maths which has been changed to Mastering Mathematics.”

In San Fernando, many parents said they shopped early for their children’s school books, but noted that some of the text books and uniforms were costly.

“Not only the textbooks but the prices of the uniforms increased over the years,” said Pleasantville mother, Krystal Loney.