Academic materials shoot up

Guardians of students are finding it hard to make ends meet as prices of all kinds of educational materials have gone up in the market keeping pace with the stubbornly high cost of daily essentials.

Parents from lower-income families are particularly at a loss as the extra financial burden of the increased cost of education for their children, along with the rising cost of daily commodities, is wrecking their household budgets.

Prices of all educational materials including paper, exercise books, notebooks, pencils, markers, files, writing slate, calculator, white board, geometry box, pen box, and ink keep increasing day by day.

Shah Alam, owner of a small grocery shop in Sabujbagh area in Dhaka, said, “I am already facing trouble to bear expenses of my five-member family due to high prices of essentials. Now, the increase in prices of education materials is adding insult to the injury.”

He said “It is becoming difficult to run my family in Dhaka bearing the family expenses and education cost of my two school-going daughters with my limited earnings. So, I am contemplating shifting my family to our ancestral home in Madaripur.” 

Traders said the prices of paper and other educational materials have been increasing since the resumption of in-person classes at educational institutions in March this year, after a long closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Students even cannot buy some of the educational materials as the products are not available in the market. The publishers have stopped printing some books due to increased paper prices. As a result, some grammar books and exercise books for practical classes are now out of the market.

Several shop owners said the price of practical exercise book has increased to Tk 820 per dozen which was Tk 660 just three months ago. The price of one ream of white print paper has jumped to Tk 420 from Tk 300 during the same time.

Similarly, during the last 4-5 months, the price of a slate has increased to Tk 22-25 from Tk 15 while chalk prices to Tk 12-13 from Tk 6-7. The paper of Tk 240 per ream is now selling at Tk 270-80, the paper of Tk 310 per ream is selling at Tk 380, and the price of Bashundhara offset paper has increased to Tk 300 from Tk 260. The price of scale which was Tk 180 per dozen is now Tk 240, a compass was Tk 55 and it is now Tk 80-90, and the price of a scientific calculator has jumped to Tk 260-70 from Tk 180.

Traders have said the prices of various types of the ready-made notebook have increased by almost 50 per cent. The prices of medical, engineering and law books have also increased in the retail market.

Original books of various foreign authors are not available now in the market while the prices of the photocopy version of those books have increased by 20 to 30 per cent on average.

      Rubel Miah, the owner of ‘Ad Printing Press’ in Nilkhet, said, “The cost of printing has increased a lot. Apart from increased prices of printer and paper, the price of ink also hiked from Tk 250 to Tk 350 per set, forcing us to increase the prices of photocopy and printed version of different academic books.”

Abul Bashar, owner of Al Madina Library in Nilkhet, said the prices of earlier printed books have not increased, but the price of all newly printed editions has increased by Tk20 to Tk100.

“At present, there is no stability in the book market as the prices are increasing every month due to increased prices of printing materials,” he added

Jahanara Aktar, a law department student from Dhaka University, said they have to photocopy various reference books and notes for their study purposes but the cost of photocopying has doubled in recent times.

She said earlier the cost of a photocopy was Tk 1.20 to Tk 1.50 for both sides of a paper, but now it has increased to Tk 3 in just a couple of months.

Meanwhile, the owners of printing and publishing houses showed the increased prices of printing materials — paper, board, ink, and lubricant — in the international market as the reason behind the recent hike in book prices

They said no sooner had the printing and publication industry begun to make a comeback from two-year-long closures and business slowdown owing to the coronavirus pandemic, than the sudden price hike of the paper dealt a fresh blow to it, ultimately affecting the country’s education sector.

The price of per tonne of newsprint paper has increased to Tk 85,000 which was Tk 35,000 in December while the price of per tonne of whiteprint paper has increased to Tk 1,30,000 from Tk 70,000 in December.

Shahid Serneabat, chairman of the Printing Industries Association of Bangladesh, told The Business Post, “The printing industry is passing a tough time blow due to increased price of paper. We are facing trouble as millers cannot supply the paper on time on the excuse of raw material shortage.”

Bangladesh Publisher & Booksellers Association Vice-President Shyamal Pal told The Business Post, “We are being forced to increase the price of books as the price of all kinds of paper along with other printing materials has doubled in the market in last few months.”

Shyamal Pal, also the owner of Punthiniloy publishing house in Banglabazar, said the cost of all materials related to printing books has also doubled, including the price of the plate, lamination and binding cost and all types of chemicals.

He said the publishers will sit in a meeting soon to increase book prices further as the traders are counting losses due to high prices of printing materials. 

The price of paper used for printing has increased by Tk 250 to Tk 300 per ream which consists of 500 identical sheets, said Zakir Hossain, an employee of Orange Printing and Press in Fakirapool area in Dhaka.

He said the price of 80-gram paper is now Tk 2,300-2,400 per ream, but it was at Tk 2,500-Tk 2,600 a few months ago. Similarly, the price of 100-gram paper was Tk 2,500-Tk 2,600 per ream which is now Tk 2,800-Tk 2,900 while the price of 160-gram paper was Tk1,800-Tk 1,900 but it is now at Tk 2,200-Tk 2,300.