What it costs to send children to school

Coming to the end of every July/August vacation, parents are faced with the expenses of the upcoming school year.

But unless you are a parent, you may not be aware of the full cost of these supplies.

To give an insight into what parents face every end of term vacation, the Business Day has compiled responses from two families: a single-parent family and a nuclear family.

What a single mother faces

A single mother, who asked for her name not to be used, said she faces upwards of $6,000 in school supplies for her three children at the start of the term.

However, there may be other expenses throughout the year such as stationery – pens, notebooks, pencils etc – or supplies for a project as assigned throughout the school year.

She spends an average of $2,000 per child and broke down the expenses.

“(I pay) $500 per year in security fee (to the school) and $5 per week for class maintenance.”

She added that she usually gave her three children a stipend of $50 everyday, but was able to reduce that after her 19-year-old started university and now that her 17-year-old is out of school and awaiting Caribbean Secondary Education Council or CSEC results.

As for textbooks, this year, she said, “I paid $172 for one textbook, because I had the rest from what my other children used recently.”

The only hurdle in this cost-cutting opportunity is the school recommending the new edition of the textbooks in its book lists. Since most were reused from her older children, there was only one book to replace, but on average, ten textbooks can cost between $150 and $250 each. She suspects prices have increased since she last bought textbooks, though.

School bags cost $400. The uniform consists of pants, which are $220, and the shirt, $68 – only one set was bought this term, since, she said, she has other uniforms.

Stationery made up the bulk of her spending at $1,004, which covered the basics.

Asked how she manages the cost of these items year after year, she said, “It is a huge challenge, but since the three started school I started sou sou to cover the cost of the book list.”

A sousou is an informal savings club widely known in West Africa and the Caribbean, an arrangement between a trusted group of family or friends. Members pay a fixed, equal amount of money into a common fund every week, fortnight or month and take turns being paid on an agreed-upon schedule. The group selects a treasurer who collects the members' contributions. The pool rotates until all members have been paid their agreed share. They don't earn interest and there is no reward for recruiting participants.

It should be noted that although there are legitimate sou sous, there are also scams parading as sou sous that are illegal pyramid schemes. People are also warned about scammers using this concept for dishonest means.

Nuclear family sending 3 children to school

A father, Vishaal, shared how he and his wife go about sending their three children – a secondary-school student, a primary-school student and pre-schooler – to their respective schools. The total cost, including monthly tuition fees, is upwards of $9,000 for the three children.

He said for tuition, only pre-school has a recurring fee of $650 monthly, while no such payments are made to the secondary or primary schools.

As for the maintenance fees, he said, “(There is) none for high school, but the school hosts fundraisers during the term which help with school upkeep. Same for primary school, but around $300 each is donated, while there are no fees for pre-school.”

Transport for two of his children costs $600 a month – $400 for the secondary school and $200 for the primary school.

As for textbooks, Vishaal said, “We utilise the second-hand-book Facebook platforms, so secondary-school textbooks can cost $600, while primary-school textbooks were approximately $300, as mostly past papers are being done and there are none for pre-school.”

Other items such as stationery or anything else listed in the schools’ book lists added up to around $400, he said.

Devices which will be used for upcoming school projects and were used for online classes previously cost him $5,000 for both older children.

Bookstore owners’ perspectives

The start of the school year, in September, usually generates the majority of the income of bookstores or other school-supplies vendors, but this year, business has been slow.

Multiple bookstore and school-supply store-owners have reported a low turnout of parents and students shopping for textbooks or uniforms.

Nigel Khan – owner of Nigel R Khan Booksellers – said people have only been buying the bare essentials so far, but expects that by the end of the month, more people will come out.

“I am hoping that the rush will come. But by the looks of it, I think people are just selectively picking out what they want or waiting till they get money. I think the population just does not have the cash, and after covid19, people have not been spending like they used to.”

He added that there is a shortage of some textbooks – those that are printed locally – and imports are late.

“But it is expected that people would not get everything at one bookstore.”

During the covid19 pandemic, shipping and freight costs increased drastically, which affected the consumer, and though Khan said so far, some prices have decreased, coming out of the pandemic is like restarting the wheel in terms of recovering from exorbitant fees to benefit customers and the business.

CEO of Charran’s Bookstores Vivek Charran, echoing Khan, said though the bookstore is reporting sales, they are not the same as 2019.

“However, we take into account the fact that commercial activity in the economy is not the same, and neither is the performance of the economy, since people are dealing with inflation, particularly food inflation.

"But the good news is that with regard to back-to-school products, we have not seen that level of inflation.”

He said shipping prices have decreased this year compared to the last two years, from US$12,000 to US$2,000-US$3,000.

Charran also offered some advice to parents to cut costs: “People believe that brands are a big thing when getting back-to-school items, but the reality is that you don’t always have to opt for branded items, because those would always be more expensive than the less popular brands. It does not mean the quality won’t be the same.”

He explained that items such as coloured pencils, crayons and play dough are usually replaced frequently, so parents should choose the cheaper brands, making it easier on their pockets.

Even second-hand bookstores have reported a significant drop in sales. The owner of The Book Express on Henry Street, Port of Spain, who did not want to be named, gestured to three stacks of textbooks and said they are usually gone around this time – but business has been slow.

A book-bag vendor on the street added that around this time he is “usually pumping,” but this year, he has hardly made sales. He said he is hopeful that business picks up before the start of the school year.