Parents doing back to school shopping claim the quality of goods they are forking out hard-earned dollars for are not worth the price tag.
Mother of two, Kinisimere Talei, said it was hard to understand how prices for poor quality school stationery had increased significantly.
“Over the past few years of doing back-to-school shopping, I’ve noticed that there have been a lot of changes, especially with the prices of books,” she said.
“The books we used to purchase for $1.20 are now sold at $1.75 and the prices of other stationery have skyrocketed as well.
“Not only that, the quality of some stationery has gotten worse, for example, technical drawing sets were robust before but now they break so easily.”
Ms Talei was one of the few parents who did not apply for government’s $200 per student back to school cash assistance.
“I normally do my back-to-school shopping before Christmas so today (last week) my kids and I are just shopping for a few more school items.”
She urged parents that applied for the cash assistance to use the money wisely.
“As the new academic year is about to begin, it would be wise for parents to use the money for the appropriate reasons, and that is their children.”
