The beginning of a new school year is often difficult for parents because they have to allocate great amounts of money to purchase everything their children need for the school. The price of textbooks all over BiH is between 12 BAM and 15 BAM, somewhere up to 18 BAM, while textbooks for foreign language are much more expensive and their prices reach 50 BAM.
Besides textbooks, they also need to purchase notebooks, equipment for drawing, writing and painting, equipment for sporting activities, as well as new clothes and footwear. The average family has two children, and thus all these costs are doubled.
According to Dijana Parla from the Council of Parents of Canton Sarajevo, parents have different ways to manage to purchase everything. They mostly buy used books, especially for older classes when there are multiple classes.
When we talk about books, notebooks, school supplies and all accompanying clothes for the new school year, a simple calculation shows us that parents need half of the average salary or about 400 BAM. If they have two children, the conclusion is simple – the entire average salary. It should be noted that the average salary in FBiH is 894 BAM, and in RS 880 BAM.
If parents are buying clothes for their children on the market, then they need about 150 BAM. Much larger sums of money are needed if clothing, footwear and backpacks are purchased in the stores.
Damir Berberovic from the Council of Parents of the Primary School “Hamdija Kresevljakovic” from Gradacac stated that they need to allocate between 150 and 300 BAM for textbooks, depending on the class.
Prices of textbooks range from 10 BAM to 18 BAM in Mostar.
On the other side, primary school students in Brcko have free books provided by the Government of Brcko District. A total of 420,000 BAM was allocated for this purpose from the budget.
(Source: M. N./Klix.ba)
