Two days before the start of the new academic year parents flooded two of the capital city’s major bookstores downtown in a last-minute attempt to secure school supplies. But many were frustrated by long lines, high prices, and unavailability of textbooks.

Searching around a cramped Sangster’s Bookstore on King Street, Andrea Warren said she travelled from Clarendon, where she first tried to secure books for her children.

“My son is in grade six and he is supposed to get 12 books plus other stationery. There were only three books there, and now this bookstore has four. I only got two books for my other child in grade two,” she told the Jamaica Observer on Saturday.

“It’s very hard shopping for books because in Clarendon the lady in the bookstore told me that some books are not available yet or not even printed yet, so what I did is I waited until last minute, hoping they would be available,” said Warren.

Obviously frustrated that she had to travel more than 30 miles to secure some textbooks, she questioned why the necessary checks had not been made to ensure that the books being requested by schools were in stock before booklists were created.

Bypassing the long lines outside Kingston Bookshop, another parent was seen pushing her booklist through the narrow crack of the door, begging a security guard to check if the books were in stock before she joined the line.

A few minutes later, he returned to let her know that the two textbooks she had been searching for since June were not in stock.

“Is just them two books here I have left to find, and everywhere I go I can’t get them,” she said, in reference to the Language Tree textbook and a Spanish textbook.

“A problem yah now because I don’t know where else to look,” she told the Sunday Observer before hurrying off to continue her search.

Inside the bookstore was even more chaotic. Long lines stretched the length of the store with workers zapping by quickly to help customers in their search. One worker took a booklist from a parent, scanned it, and repeated “No, no, no,” as she went down the list of books.

When approached by the Sunday Observer, the visibly distraught parent said she was not sure what she was going to do.

“As you see, she just tell me say she don’t have this one, this one, or this one,” the parent said, pointing to the books on her list.

“I don’t know what I am going to do. I just started shopping,” she added.

At another corner of the store, searching through the shelves, a parent who gave her name as Annakay said she found the prices too high, especially for her son who is in kindergarten.

“The prices are too expensive for a baby going to kindergarten. They are giving them this big reading book and know that a baby that just starting school cannot read these types of books here, and the prices are too expensive. The prices must can drop,” Annakay argued.

When asked if she had any backup plan, she shook her head and said, “I have to just do what I have to do because I want him to come out brilliant.”

According to the Consumer Affairs Commission’s 2024 annual school textbook survey report, the average price for textbooks across the island increased by 6.6 per cent with most books recording price increases between one and 10 per cent.

This year’s islandwide average price increase of 2.4 percentage points is said to be lower than the average increase observed last year.

The report further noted that the availability of textbooks islandwide was 39 per cent. Some outlets reported that the limited availability of some popular titles was due to their not receiving new stocks as yet.

Kingston Bookshop Managing Director Steadman Fuller, in addressing the issue of textbook availability, said the Language Tree workbook is one that his store had issues procuring.

“They had some shipping issues, but that will be available about next weekend. A lot of schools have adopted it, but there were some issues with it. I think they had some technical publishing issues, and then they had some shipping issues, so those are the main [challenges] that have caused it to not be here,” he told the Sunday Observer.

Otherwise, Fuller said the availability of books has been good, but they are going fast due to high demand, particularly in the early childhood category.

He said that, particularly during the last week of August, he saw a flood of customers entering stores; therefore, the last-minute rush might be due to some parents just now receiving book vouchers.

When asked about the prices of the books, which have become a heavy burden for some parents, he said the prices were a reflection of the changes in the exchange rate.

“What is happening, and what we are afraid of at the moment, is the fact that the exchange rate has been moving rather heavily and a big percentage of the books are imported, and even where they are not published here they are printed abroad and therefore that impacts the cost when the exchange rate has been moving,” he told the
Sunday Observer.

“It’s a good thing that some persons have purchased early, because if it [the exchange rate] keeps moving then some adjustments will have to be made where the prices are concerned, but in the meantime, books are generally available, and parents are buying,” Fuller said.

“The sad thing about it is, because it [exchange rate] started moving and some of us haven’t paid our bills yet, we’re gonna be faced with paying higher prices for the books which we have sold already,” he explained.

The exchange rate has fluctuated between $150 and $156 to US$1 for the past three years. On August 30 the weighted average posted on the Bank of Jamaica website was $157.0437 to US$1.

On Saturday, parents were adamant that something needs to be done to make sourcing textbooks easier and more affordable.

“The system just needs to do better because learning is the key,” said Roxanna Grant.

“We find uniform and everything else easy. It’s just the books. I don’t know what’s happening if they didn’t make enough this year or what. I got two, and I just found one more, so that’s three. I have six more leave. Something has to be done to help us,” she stressed.

Another parent, who gave her name as Yanique and who was in line outside Kingston Bookshop to exchange two books she had purchased in error, was not pleased when her third attempt to enter the store was denied because inside was overcrowded.

She told the Sunday Observer that this was her second day trying to get the books exchanged.

“The schools need to provide some of the books because that will be better and that will be easier for us too, so we don’t have to come here and join the line. They know the books they want, so even if they just buy it and we buy it from them, or they put it in the school fee, that would be better,”she reasoned.