New school year puts Saudi families in state of frenzy

“Saudi families are getting into “back-to-school mode with the new school year set to begin Sunday.
Khaled Al-Zahrani, a father of two girls in elementary school and three sons in junior high school, says: “We have just returned from our annual vacation in Malaysia, where we spent part of our two-and-a-half month summer vacation. As soon as we arrived home, we went into a state of frenzy.”
“My wife and I agreed on a division of labor. I bought everything the kids needed, while my wife went to tailoring shops to get school uniforms stitched for our two girls. So far, I have spent SR2,000 on school supplies. I would say there is a 30-percent increase in prices from last year, but I guess this is to be expected at this time of the year. For bookshops, this is peak season, just like any other cyclical commodity,” he said.
Umm Muhammad, Zahrani’s wife, says that the end of the summer vacation synchronizes the biological clocks of children with those of regular employees. “Of course, the kids stay up very late during the summer months, but when school time comes, they find it very difficult to adjust to the new rhythm,” she said.
“Just before the start of the school year, I try to regularize their sleeping habits so they gradually get used to the new schedule,” she said.
The Mirza Group of Bookshops is one of the oldest and most well-known bookshops in the Kingdom, with annual sales of SR2 billion in 2012. Its owner, Jamil Mirza, said the increase in the price of school supplies and stationery is due to an increase in shipping rates from overseas.
“We import about 60 percent of our supplies from abroad. If you add to that the fact the price of raw paper has also increased and if you factor in human greed, then it’s only natural for prices to rise,” he said.