The “financial weight” of a child’s school bag: costs have increased, the expert says

The new academic year starts next week. Alpha News has tried to understand to what extent a parent will feel the “financial weight” of their child’s school bag in the face of inflation. We have been informed from the Ministry of Education and Science that the financial assistance programs provided for education remained the same. As in previous years, this year all first to fourth graders will receive textbooks for free, and parents of high school students will have to pay for textbooks (we have not yet been able to find out the exact amount). The social program is valid for border residents. Students from families registered in the system of insecurity assessment or in state-run social assistance programs (in this case, above the 4th grade) also receive some support for textbooks.

The compensation for the amounts of textbooks, according to each textbook, is established by the order of the RA Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports for each academic year. Alpha News has tried to understand how the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, in addition to the Ministry of Education, helps parents who send their children to school this year. Spokesperson for the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Zara Manucharyan has noted in a telephone conversation with us that the Ministry has only one-time assistance program.

“The Ministry provides assistance to children from families receiving the benefit who have entered the first grade of a general education institution. It is a one-time assistance of 25,000,” the spokesperson said.
Manucharyan has stressed that parents should apply to social security themselves to receive this assistance.

We have tried to ask the chairman of the Consumers Association of Armenia Armen Poghosyan, what is the average cost of a school bag and other school items today.

“The average amount intended for sending children to school tends to fluctuate – up to 10%. This amount increases every year by 10%,” Poghosyan said, noting that even the Statistics Committee does not have accurate data on these expenditures.

“Every parent wants their child to go to school in new clothes, have a physical education uniform and other school items, all this is difficult to calculate,” Poghosyan said.

Armen Poghosyan’s grandson will go to the 4th grade this year. According to Poghosyan’s calculations, about 40,000 drams are their expenses for the new academic year.

“For the first layer of society, this is a pleasure rather than an expense. They can pay ten times more, however for other social groups it is a big expense,” he stated, adding that for low-income families, these expenses are even impossible.

According to him, there are schools with personalized notebooks and pens, and children from low-income families feel bad seeing all this. Poghosyan has noted that based on the economic situation in Armenia, everything in our country should be justified, while prodigality should be excluded. Touching upon other social problems, Poghosyan has mentioned that more than 65% of the family budget in Armenia is spent on food.

“By the standards of developed European countries, this is an extreme level of poverty.”

If in one of the European countries more than 30% is spent on food, then we are talking about unsecured groups. Poghosyan has explained that in addition to food, clothing, public services, there are also cultural expenses that are not included in the basket.

“A person was not born to consume tomatoes or shoes, he must live a spiritual life too,” Poghosyan stressed, adding that the line that sets the costs of cultural and spiritual life means nothing for many people.