Stationers doing brisk business despite 20% increase in prices AL-KHOBAR – Cash-strapped parents will be taking a big hit to their wallets this year because of rising back-to-school costs. Making matters worse is the start of the academic year coming hard on the heels of the holidays and Ramadan and Eid Al-Fitr celebrations. There has been a 20 percent increase in school stationery prices this year, according to market sources. Uniform prices have also increased 15 percent compared to last year. But parents have had little choice but to go out to buy goods for their children. There has been a huge rush to stationery shops to purchase school bags, pencils, books, markers, water bottles, color pencils, drawing books and pencil pouches. Most stationery shops and hypermarkets in the Eastern Province are doing brisk business. Most of the Asian international schools started their new term a few days ago; their academic year started in April. Other international schools will reopen this coming Saturday. Many parents say they are finding it difficult to cope with the rising cost of school items. Ahmed Kadir, an Indian expatriate, said he is going to struggle this year. “My salary has not increased over the last three years. But the cost of education for my kids is always on the up.” Mutaher Hussain, who has three children studying at international schools in Jubail, spent about SR450 on stationery last year, but this year he had to spend more than SR600 to buy the same items. Ramla Begum, an Indian housewife, who has two daughters studying at a British curriculum school in Dammam, said textbook and notebook price rises have been heavy this year. “Last year I spent only SR300 on books, but this year it was SR450. That is quite a big jump,” she said. Some expatriate families returning from annual leave are bringing stationery for their children back from their homelands because it is so expensive in the Kingdom.
