Prices of books soar as schools resume

AS Primary and Secondary Schools resume tomorrow from the long vocations, dealers and sellers of text books are making a brisk business, just as the prices of the books have skyrocketed thereby living parents in a dilemma.
Our correspondent who visited bookshops in Rwang Pam Street in Jos City Centre revealed that the prices of almost all books have doubled which makes parents to groan as a result of the increase in the prices.
SUNDAY STANDARD further reports that some schools insisted that the books and other materials must be purchased in the schools which make parents more confused. Investigation reveals that primary schools text and other materials in almost all the schools costs between N20,000 and
N25,000 while the secondary aspect costs N30,000 and N35,000 which parents frowned at that if they were left to go to the open market, the prices would have been lower.
Some parents who spoke to our correspondent at the Rwang Pam Street lamented the high prices of books compared to last year, saying that if the situation was not checked they would have no option than to leave their wards and children out of school.
Mr. Itsegok Abok who said his child got admission in one of the prestigious secondary schools in Jos told our correspondent that he had to spend not less than N500,000 in some purchases apart from the school fees which he said was high too.
According to him, he had not finished, but wondered how he was going to do with the first child who was entering his second year in secondary school, stressing that for the first one he was given a bill of N150,000 apart from other materials that to be bought in the open market.
Mr. Abok therefore called on governments at all levels to come to the aid of the down trodden in order to make education cheaper for them.
Mrs. Laitu Ishaya who said she is a widow decried the high prices of books and other materials, but was quick to point out that if she was to come to the open market the prices would have been affordable saying where her daughter gained admission was far higher and called on school authorities to desist from the act as it was criminal.
Mrs. Ishaya therefore urged the government to always check and punish erring schools that saw education as business which was to the detriment of parents.
  It revealed that the excuses being given by schools to parents not to buy books outside of the school was that most of the said books were pirated ones.
Bookshops and stores were full of activities as at Friday where parents were putting finishing touches for the resumption of their wards and children
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