LAHORE – Increasing stationery prices have baffled the students from low-income families. A continuous rise in the prices of school stationery over the past few years has risen questions over the seriousness of the government in promoting free education. Traders and parents fear that the recent flood surcharge will increase already high stationery prices. Parents claim that a 50 to 100 % increase in the prices of stationery items, excluding books, has occurred recently, which made them out of the range of middle-class families.
Proportional increases: Bookstore owners said the increase of stationery item prices was directly proportional to the prices of petrol and electricity. “Increasing prices elsewhere means manufacturers and bookstore owners must have to increase their profit margins.” Parents are concerned that private schools are forcing students to purchase books and notebooks from pre-sanctioned bookstores and consequently schools themselves are profiting from the price increases. Stationery items including pencil, erasers, highlighter pen, scissors, ink pen, scale, glue, chart paper and other items are becoming out of the reach of the middle and the lower middle class families.
Further hike expected: A Wahdat Road bookshop owner told Pakistan Today that new taxes and surcharge will further impact the prices of these items. He said soaring paper prices also played a role in the stationery price increase. Continuing to criticise the attitude of schools, parents have complained that authorities make sure they purchase stationery items on a daily basis which is proving to be an additional financial burden. A student named Mohib said that his school asks students to buy different types of stationery items without any valid reason. He said that although he has been studying in an elite school, it was not easy for his parents to bear his school expenses.
He also said the different types of exhibitions his school hosts mean he has to purchase expensive material including oil paints and mirrors. Prices go up and up and up: Mrs Butt,a mother of three, told Pakistan Today that her monthly expenditure on stationery items ranges from two to three thousand rupees as the prices have been increased dramatically over the years, she claimed that a notebook which was available at Rs 35 few months ago is now selling at Rs 50 to 60. Criticizing the school authorities, she said schools force them to buy these items from designated book stores that exploit the parents. She said that book store owners were raking it in and selling books at double the price that Urdu Bazaar offers. “It is not easy to visit Urdu Bazaar on a daily basis, or, else I would,” she said.
Mrs Umer, a mother of two, said the start of a new academic year means her children are demanding brand new stationery which is not easy to afford. “A decent school bag now costs Rs 500 and my daughters tear it within a few months. What am I to do,” she asks.
