Despite covid19, Tobagonians still buying schoolbooks

Tobagonians are buying books and other supplies for their children, even though the Government is yet to announce its decision on the possible resumption of physical classes in the new school term next month.

A virtual curriculum was implemented more than a year ago as a strategy to prevent the spread of covid19.

The Prime Minister has said the Government is hoping to resume physical classes among segments of the school population if there is a decline in the rate of new infections.

Store attendants said on Thursday the flow of customers buying schoolbooks is not as hectic as in previous years.

They attributed this to the ongoing effects of the pandemic.

"It is not like years before, but you still surprised to see them buying stuff," a clerk at Nelson's Bookstore, Breeze Hall Mall, Scarborough, told Newsday.

The clerk said apart from books, stationery was the big seller. But parents have not been buying many uniforms, she added.

"It is a medium flow of people we have coming in.

"As soon as bookstores were asked to open to sell to the public, people immediately started to come. Before, school was still going on but the bookstores were closed. So people were really happy to come and freely get stuff from the bookstore."

She said parents began buying school supplies when book lists were issued at the end of last term.

A worker at Educator's Bookstore, Robinson Street, uptown Scarborough, said people had started buying books since the start of the July-August vacation.

But she has noticed a significant decline in shoppers.

"Remember with covid, people are not buying as before," she said.

National Parent-Teacher Association first vice-president (Tobago region) Joseph Lindo told Newsday some parents are not eager to buy schoolbooks owing to the uncertainty over the resumption of physical classes.

"The rush to buy books is not there," he claimed. "With the lockdown, parents struggling financially, so they don't want to spend money now to buy books for their children and then they may not go to school."

He said parents have told him, "It will take a while for them to acquire the books that are necessary.So they are just playing a game of wait-and-see."

Lindo said he spoke recently to a teacher who also said parents were not rushing to buy books.

"They sent out the booklist and the feedback that they got is that there is not really a rush."

The teacher, he claimed, said parents were trying to get second-hand books from other parents, whose children may not have used those books a year ago.

Lindo said finance is an issue for many parents.

"Parents do not have the luxury to go out and buy all of these new books.

Last year, parents would have gone out and bought their books and uniform in a more timely manner than this time around. But this time it is much slower than last year."

Lindo said some parents are also awaiting the outcome of the Ministry of Education's meeting with stakeholders on Friday before buying books for their children. The meeting is being held virtually at 10 am.