Price increase of school supplies

KUANTAN - Majority of parents have admitted that there is an increase in the price of school supplies in most shopping malls in the district.

Sinar conducted a survey on several shops and clothing centres around the area and interviewed parents who were busy buying clothes, shoes and school bags for their children.

Most of them claimed to have spend between RM200 to RM300 to buy school supplies for one child.

Civil servant Rabihah Hamzah, 44, admitted to have to spent a lot of money for back to school supplies for her children.

The mother of four said that she had spent almost RM300 to buy school uniforms for each of her kids.

"I had spend approximately RM300 for only the uniforms of one child, it does not include stationery, books and so on.

"But for this next school session, my expenses are slightly reduced as I had gradually bought their school supplies.

"It will be burdensome when you buy everything at once and the price of items such as clothes, shoes and school bags have increase by RM2 to RM3 compared to last year," she said when met by Sinar Harian at a supermarket in the district yesterday.

Rabihah said her children had received Early Schooling Aid (BAP) of RM150 per person, but it will be used for school fees.

Zakaria Man, 42, also said school expenses this time had increased because he had to buy new uniforms for his two children.

"My eldest child is in fourth grade and the youngest is in the first grade. For this school session, I have to buy new uniforms for my eldest child as the old ones are worn out while my youngest child needs new uniforms because she has only started primary school.

'So today (Sunday) I only bought half of their school supplies which are school uniforms, al-Quran and Fardhu Ain (KAFA) uniforms, hijabs and others," he said.

The civil servant informed that last year expenditure was roughly RM200 for one child but the amount has doubled this year.

Therefore, Zakaria suggested for the government to increase employee's salary and provide other aids to reduce the people's burden.

Meanwhile, a private company clerk Maisarah Khazali, 35, expected relevant parties to continuously monitor the price of school supplies.

The mother of two said this is because the price of school supplies was vastly different compared to last year.

"The government needs to do something because the price of school supplies increases every year and this situation burdens parents, especially of the B40 group.

"The RM150 BAP aid is not enough because the price of a common brand uniform can reach up to RM50 to RM60 per pair," she said.