Home ›› 08 Sep 2021 ›› Back
School stationery business, hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, is coming back to life with the government’s announcement of the reopening of educational institutions on September 12.
Consequently, the demand for school bags and stationery items such as notepads, pencil sharpeners, pencil cases, erasers, staplers and document holders is shooting up.
Local stationary shopkeepers said their sales volume is increasing as the demand for school bags and other related stationery items grew significantly in recent days.
They said school, college and university students are now visiting their stores more than in recent past months.
“Following the government’s decision to reopen educational institutions, we are getting positive response from the customers. Though our business was badly affected during the lockdown period, reopening of schools and colleges is a blessing for our business,” said Md Shaheen Alam, proprietor of Jannat Enterprise at Mirpur.
“Primary school children are looking for their bags tagged with cartoon characters such as Dora, Ben 10 and Barbie characters,” he added.
“We have a huge collection of bags for all customers but the demand for school bags suddenly went up as students are preparing to return to classrooms after a long break due to Covid-19,” said Md Nurul Islam, proprietor of Rafi Leather House at Mirpur-1.
“Earlier, we only attended online classes but very soon we will be able to go to our educational institutions. So, I have decided to purchase a new bag along with other necessary stationery items from the New Market,” Talwith Nashid Alam, a student, told The Business Post.
“The prices of different bags are comparatively lower in New Market than the other markets in the capital,” claimed Alam, a Secondary School Certificate candidate.
Most of the shops, selling school bags and stationery items in the capital, reported huge crowds.
Innovative and lucrative designs also play a vital role in the increased growth of the local stationery items in the country.
Md Anwar Hossain, owner of Ankur Library and stationery, said, “The demand for school stationery increased suddenly and such demand will go up once all educational institutions reopen as stationery items are an essential tool for students.”
“Currently, the demand for notepads, pencil sharpener, pencil case, eraser, stapler and document holder is quite high as these are an integral part of the education system,” he added.
The global literacy rate among people within the age range of 15-24 years has increased by 6.89 per cent during 1996-2016. Such growth is indicative of the fact that the number of student enrolment in educational institutions will increase, which will have a positive impact on the growth of the global school bags market size, according to the World Bank Group.
On the other hand, according to the IMARC, another market research company, the global school stationery supplies market reached a value of $85.5 billion in 2020. Looking forward, IMARC Group also expects the market to grow at a compound annual growth rate of around 4 per cent during 2021-2026.
In March this year, Unicef said schools for more than 168 million children globally had been completely closed for almost an entire year due to lockdowns. Furthermore, around 214 million children globally, or one in seven, have missed more than three-quarters of their in-person learning.
The government shuttered all educational institutions in March last year to halt the spread of Covid-19.
On August 5, Education Minister Dipu Moni said the government had decided to hold regular classes for Secondary School Certificate, the Higher Secondary Certificates and Class-five students. She also said that the students of class-I to class-IV would have to come to the educational institution once a week.
