Textbooks Prices Set To Increase Ahead Of School Reopening.
Textbook prices in the country are expected to reach an all-time high in the next week, just a few days before school resumes.
Textbook publishers have issued a warning about an impending crisis in the education sector, claiming that there may be a shortage of learning materials, which they attribute to the current increase in international freight charges.
According to the companies, the new development is due to the increased cost of acquiring printing papers and other raw materials used in textbook printing.
They also stated that they get the majority of their materials from Europe, Asia, and Australia, but the cost of acquiring such materials has risen in those regions as well.
Logistically, importing a container could cost them around Ksh172,650, but the cost is currently close to Ksh1 million.
According to the Kenya Publishers Association (KPA), freight charges will have a direct impact on the cost imposed on parents.
“We have no choice but to increase our prices because the business environment has really changed,” KPA chairman, Lawrence Njagi, explained.
KPA stated that it has submitted a formal request to the government to effect price adjustments on approved books in order to protect parents from higher prices.
If the government does not review the prices, parents will have to dig deeper into their pockets when purchasing textbooks.
The price increase comes after the taxman imposed a 25% import duty on printing paper, up from 10% previously.
ALSO READ:
“The purpose of this memo is to require the Deputy Commissioner, Risk Management and Post Clearance Audit to carry out an audit and collect all revenue that may have been foregone,” read a memo dated January 27 from the taxman.
Parents may also be forced to pay more for uniforms due to the current inflation rate of 5.4 percent.
Textbooks Prices Set To Increase Ahead Of School Reopening
