With the start of the new academic year only days away, some parents say they are feeling pressure to prepare everything in time to send their children off to school.

Twana Douglas, who has a daughter attending Ardenne High School, told the Jamaica Observer that even though she has spent approximately $70,000 on school fees and other necessities, she is still not completely prepared.

“I have only two additional uniforms to go with the ones from last year. Uniforms definitely [cost] more. I’m paying almost twice the cost for one uniform,” said Douglas.

Although she did not disclose how much the price for uniforms has increased, Douglas said it nonetheless affected her back-to-school budget.

“The most challenging part about preparing for back-to-school is getting all the books on the book list. Other than the cost for the books, sourcing the books is a task by itself, and I still have a few things that I will get throughout the school term,” said Douglas, whose daughter is an only child.

Another mother, Sherika Johnson-Edwards, said even though only one of her three children is currently in the school system, she is still not prepared because as a teacher she had to attend a number of workshops, while caring for her twin babies, thus limiting the amount of time she had to shop for her daughter who will be going into grade one at Alpha Primary.

“This school sells it [uniforms] cheaper than the school before. I paid $3,000 per uniform. Books are the most challenging because I cannot understand all that is on the book list,” Edwards said, stating that it was hard to source the books her daughter Laurie needed.

She said that in total she has spent more than $50,000 on back-to-school preparations.

Another parent, Nadine Sylvester, said although she feels that her six-year-old son has everything he needs for the new academic year — with the exception of his school shoes — the price of one suit of khaki uniform was much higher.

“It was more expensive to buy uniforms this year. Last year, I think I paid $2,500 for one suit of uniform and this year I paid about $4,000,” she said. However, Sylvester said that she is not feeling pressured because the family did not wait until the last minute to start back-to-school shopping.

Her son, she said, is very excited to start school again.

“Every day him say, ‘Mom, when am I going back to school?” the mother of two said.

A similar experience was related by Achim Clunis, who said his nine-year-old daughter, Ackeena, is eager for the school year to begin.

“She is very excited to go back to school because since she is an only child she’s by herself a lot because I have to work. Even though I’m working from home, I can’t pay her much attention,” he said.

Clunis, too, said he’s not feeling any pressure as it relates to purchasing uniforms.

“I don’t have to buy any uniforms for my daughter because she only wear the ones she had for two terms and they still look brand new. All I had to buy for her this year are new shoes and sneakers, because she outgrew them, a bag and books. For those I spent about $20,000,” he said.

The new academic year will be the first year in two years in which schools will begin with face-to-face classes as restrictions put in place to limit spread of COVID-19 had forced a closure of schools and a switch to online instruction.