The month of September is here and for those of you with wards at school, purchasing stationery and school items could have some burden on the pocket.

Amidst the Computerized Placement System, parents and guardians of wards who have gained access to the various Senior High and Vocational Schools would have to make purchases of stationery, trunks and chop boxes.

But “the demand for chop boxes and trunks has reduced massively and this has caused prices to reduce” – a seller told Joy Business.

A market price survey showed that a small-sized trunk, which hitherto went for GH¢110 now goes for GH¢90. Also, a medium-sized chop box which hitherto goes for GH¢250 now goes for between GH¢100 to GH¢150.

A visit to one of the popular stationery shops in the Central Business of Accra – Topman Book Centre Stationery, saw patrons in their numbers troop in to secure for their ward’s textbooks, calculators, pens and so on. Manager of the Stationery Shop, Samuel Kwame Aboagye was generally satisfied with patronage.

“This is indeed the book season. The Free SHS education has given parents less financial burden to buy the best stationery for their wards,” he told JoyBusiness.

How much do you spend on preparation for school? For a mother who came with her daughter to get some materials for school, she has had to spend between GH¢2000 to GH¢3000 in provisions and stationery alone. “This is a normal ritual I commit to every new academic year,” she narrated to JoyBusiness.

Parents and guardians are spending to get their wards to school at a time when high fuel prices accompanied by the hike in transport fares have generally impacted the cost of living on a large scale. 

For most parents and guardians, the trick to surviving a new academic season has been planning and savings to cushion themselves against any unexpected expenses.

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