While the financial pressure on families is very real, there are many parents who wonder about the relevance of certain items to buy on the list of school supplies.
Why do you need red, green, blue duo-tangs? Why do eradtler erased? Why style Crayola 56-8106? Just navigate can become a puzzle and weigh heavy on the family budget.
“It’s not for fun to complicate life to parents. This is because with experience, we realize what is useful and what is not, “said Annie-Christine Tardif, vice-president of professional life at the Autonomous Education Federation who also made a career as a teacher in the primary of primary school.
According to her, lists are designed to take into account the organization in class and education planning.
“In the first year, there are different materials. If I want the students to take out their vocabulary words, it’s easier to say: “Take out the Mauve Duo-Tang” “. Everyone knows what is required. […] After a few years of teaching, we realize that we have to organize children so that it works well, ”said Mr.me Late.
Photo Diane Tremblay
Cardboard duo-tangs may cost less than those in plastic, but they also last shorter.
“There is a reason when asking for solid and sustainable equipment. […] We want the students to have the right equipment to work well and that it is easy for them. ”
“If a parent buys an erase erase erase, sometimes they erase very badly or the hardness so that when the child erases, the leaf is tearing. […] There are brands of glue sticks which, after a month, are dry ”, lists Mme Late.
Some teachers require special brands of glue sticks.
Photo Diane Tremblay
More expensive
A survey conducted by Caddle, in partnership with the Canadian Retail Commerce Council (CCCD) recently revealed that 91% of parents say that purchases for the next school year are more expensive and more than half say “much more expensive”. The CCCD estimates that the start of the school year is a market valued at nearly $ 4 billion across the country.
The newspaper met the Fradette-Latouche family at the exit of a specialized store on Tuesday. She gets away with an invoice of sixty dollars.
“We recover equipment from past years that has almost never served. I find it a little exaggerated everything that the teachers ask for, “said Latouche.
His spouse, Marie-Pierre Fradette, notes that the list is shorter this year.
“This year is the year when the list is the least specific. […] However, it is clothing that costs a lot more. ”
For its part, the sharing group will allow the distribution of more than 11,000 backpacks including essential supplies for the start of the school year, but, according to Audrey Renaud, director general, the needs are much larger.
“Since 2022, the amount of bags has been doubled,” she says.
“The goal is to help people who are in significant financial precariousness. We are talking about people who must choose between paying the mortgage, rent or food. School effects are really the last of their concerns on the list of payments, “she added by finishing.