Photo: Bulgaria ON AIR
Feverish preparations are underway for the first day of school. However, parents’ accounts show a significant increase in the prices of supplies and materials.
“The prices are different depending on the type of notebook. There is a large format, a small format, the number of sheets, the thickness of the paper, it also depends on the design of the cover, which turns out to be tangibly important for students. A trend in recent years is that they choose the appearance of the cover. A notebook can be from 80 cents and even reach 10 BGN. The small notebook of 24 sheets for the first grade is 90 cents. With more pages and with thicker paper, as well as with a relief on the cover, they go for BGN 5, spirals and hardcovers can be up to BGN 10,” explained Stanislava Georgieva from the School Supplies Exchange in the “Bulgaria morning” studio.
According to Anna Vlaeva, who is a specialist in early childhood development and a mother of 3 children, the expenses this year were expected. She gave the example of her son, who is in the 4th grade and prefers to write in a notebook with thick sheets because he uses a ruby pen.
“Still with him, the textbooks are taken over by the state. So far the notebooks are still not significant from where they were bought and what brand they are. In the small classes they want a notebook with thicker paper because they use pens that rub off. We automatically go to the – the high-end notebooks, most likely the 90-cent ones won’t do the job,” said Vlaeva to Bulgaria ON AIR.
According to Stanislava Georgieva, parents buy the supplies according to a preliminary list and stick to it.
“There is also a requirement for some folders, they are of different colors, the teachers require the children to collect the different materials for each subject, to be in the same folder, to be found more easily. A better organization of the learning process , which in the future will educate children in a better arrangement of products,” she added.
For her part, Diana Lazarova, who is a mother of 6 children, shared that she was shocked by the prices.
“For a child to start, BGN 660 is, on average, only his clothes – two pairs of shoes, two pairs of trousers, two T-shirts, two blouses and a jacket. The uniform is BGN 100, the backpack BGN 80-120, school aids are BGN 120 BGN. My son’s textbooks for the 10th grade are BGN 308. If we add all this as a sum – it is BGN 1308 for one child. It turns out that this is significantly more than the minimum wage. For some who have more than one child, it is catastrophe. This is not enough for anything and we do not encourage the birth rate,” she pointed out.
Stanislava Georgieva recalled that inflation affects all spheres of life, as well as the products intended for students.
“We know last year how drastically the prices of raw materials and logistics services changed, and all this reflects on the prices of products. The good thing is that prices began to stabilize in the spring, and at the moment we do not expect any other changes. The biggest increase was experienced by paper items, here they go up to 20%, which is noticeable in the prices,” she explained.
Diana Lazarova commented on the topic of the introduction of digital backpacks in schools.
“The online backpack would help children not to carry these huge and heavy backpacks on their backs that cause health problems. When they learn online, they will be more intrigued because they are already used to perceiving their learning information in this way, it is more interestingly conveyed , their attention is kept. The problem is that when we part with the paper medium, it stops part of the brain’s development, it shouldn’t be lost. It’s a great idea to have more practical activities than theory,” said the mother from Burgas .
Regarding private lessons, Lazarova added that they can reach over BGN 400 just for Bulgarian and mathematics.
“They help the child learn the material permanently and efficiently and perform well at graduation and at school. Sports and dance further develop the child’s personality, we are a collection of many intelligences and we need to develop them,” she believes.
“It’s better to buy the most basic things, even if it’s for the first grade, but also to first see what the child needs. Don’t buy more if something doesn’t suit the student or he won’t need it,” advises Stanislava Georgieva.
Watch the video with the entire conversation.
Working on the post:
2023-09-13 09:56:00
#Parents #shock #BGN #needed #train #student