Parents react to high prices of school supplies

Parents react to high prices of school supplies

The rising prices of school supplies has been so hard for parents.

Instead of buying a dozen notebooks at once for her daughter, Marrisa Cagnaan, 48, chose to buy enough for first quarter.

She is used to buying wholesale, but she’s now prioritizing which has to be bought first–especially since prices of notebooks have now gone up to P18 to P20 per piece from only P15 before, she said.

According to the Department of  Trade and Industry (DTI) prices of notebooks this year range from P17.50 to P36.75, while the prices of intermediate pad paper range from P22.50 to P30.

Cagnaan, a mother of an incoming college student do some last-minute school supply shopping.

Aside from basic school supplies, she also had to buy certain items for her son’s boarding house.

She said that while face-to-face classes are the ideal setup for students, it also means a change in her children’s daily routine since the pandemic, and an adjustments in their family’s daily expenses.

“Okay ra sa mga bata kay maka face-to-face naman unya ang gasto laman maoy problema,” she said.

“Maajo ang face-to-face kay lahi man ang klase jud sa skwelahan kaysa ari ra sa bay. Kung mag face-to-face makalakaw sila, di ra mag pirme sa balay. Pero depende pod lagi sa bata kay naa may uban laagan. Kuan laman kay gasto kay mamasahe back and forth, bawn,” she added.