About BGN 500 were spent by parents for to buy backpacks, uniforms, notebooks and other school supplies to send their children to first grade. An inspection by BNT shows that the most drastic increase in the price of study aids to the free textbooks for students from 8th to 12th grade.
"I want to become a veterinarian because I really love animals and I like to take care of them," says first grader Ina Ivanova.
However, before that, 7-year-old Ina from Ruse has to go through the great adventure in the world of knowledge.
"I expect that from the first day maybe I will make some friends, let's get to know each other. Most likely they will show us the room, we will have a look. I imagine the ladies telling us such cool things.
For the Ivanovi family, this academic year will be the most important, but also the most difficult financially. In addition to sending little Ina to school, their son Mark will be a high school senior. As an experienced accountant, mother Iskrena has allocated the budget down to the penny. First she bought a backpack for 80 BGN for her daughter.
"This backpack we chose was to have different compartments so that it is convenient for the child to make distinctions between textbooks, to have a place for a water bottle. Also to be a carriage type, to pull it, because I guess the textbooks will be heavy for a small child. Separately, it has an ergonomic back with straps. The food bag will be separate, it will not be in the backpack with the textbooks. This year, when I was buying notebooks, I noticed that the prices were about 30%, in my opinion, roughly estimated, higher, or maybe because I allowed myself to buy more expensive notebooks, and not quite cheap ones", comments mother Iskrena Ivanova.< /p>
Up to BGN 1.50 is the price of notebooks with narrow and wide rows, as well as those with squares. But for older students, the notebooks – a 300-page dictionary can cost up to BGN 15. Children up to the 4th grade, as well as those in the 8th grade, receive a one-time grant of BGN 300 to cover part of the costs of teaching aids and materials.
"At the beginning of the year it is 150 and at the beginning of the second term another 150. To tell you the truth, we have already shopped, and this 150 BGN will come at a later stage. Not that they will not be used, but BGN 150, which we receive at the beginning of the first term for one child – they are for consumables – notebooks, felt-tip pens, tempera paints, plasticine and folders. We have to buy a uniform separately.
Each school in Ruse has its own uniform. Sweatshirt, shirt, t-shirt and tie cost BGN 114. A sports team is also needed. This year, the Ivanovi family spent less on notebooks and study aids for twelfth-grader Mark, but that's because he's studying software and hardware sciences.
"Accordingly, I need a laptop and computer next to me, not so much paper media. For lessons, I may need textbooks, but I have also transferred everything online and use my laptop most of the time. Because I see as a bigger person what the costs are of organizing a ball, of buying textbooks, of a suit, and then sending them abroad, because I want to study outside Bulgaria, of course, and come back afterwards. It's a very big expense with accommodations and plane tickets, but I think we'll manage.
After the parents' meetings, queues form in the bookstores in Ruse, parents shop according to lists to avoid buying unnecessary things, but they notice the increase in the prices of the aids to the free textbooks.
"The auxiliaries are replaced every year with new chambers that are unusable. I can't scrap them, I can't return them. All that I have gained is lost. Here are the closets, we have already emptied the shelves because nothing we have is no longer relevant. If you unfold inside, the pages are slightly shifted and inside is the same. Here are the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grade christomaties with a new picture on the front, the inside is the same, but the price is 2 BGN on top," says Violeta Tsankova, bookstore owner.
This practice is dooming small bookstores to bankruptcy, says Violeta Tsankova, who has been in the industry for 20 years, but is not sure how long it will last financially.