Going back to school involves a significant outlay for families and this year, with runaway inflation and more expensive bank credit, the effort may be even greater. The price of basic items for students, such as notebooks, backpacks or footwear, has increased considerably, especially the former, indicate the latest data from the INE and verify companies in the sector.
The canteen services are also being revised upwards due to the increase in the cost of food and the salary improvements included in the new collective agreements of the monitors, while some concerted centers have begun to correct the fees paid by families.
In most products and services, the price increase is below the CPI (10.8% in July, see attached graph). However, the sum of all these "minor increases" will make many families face a more expensive return to school, says Enrique García, spokesman for the OCU consumer association. "It will be noticeably more expensive," he advances. The organization studies the average spending of families and the categories that rise the most in price. Among them, two stand out: school transport, due to the price of gasoline, and the dining room. "It is difficult for the entire increase in the cost of food to be transferred, but we do anticipate increases" after years of stagnation, continues García.
In Catalonia, the Department of Education has raised the maximum price of the dining room in public centers. The order published in the Official Gazette of the Generalitat this July establishes a price of 6.54 euros per daily menu in schools with a two-and-a-half-hour dining service compared to 6.33 euros for the 2021-2022 academic year, and 6.18 euros for two hours. For students who use the dining room sporadically, the limit is 7.19 euros. The increase in the price of the dining service had been claimed by the employers of the educational leisure companies to assimilate the escalation of food and the increases in the workers' salaries. As for the concerted centers, from the Escola Cristiana employers they explain that increases will have to be applied due to inflation in food.
School fees in concerted centers also begin to rise. Added to the chronic underfinancing that they denounce is now a greater effort to pay the electricity or gas bill. Oriol Blancher, president of the Catalan School Association, comments that most of its centers have applied an increase in fees of between 2% and 3%. "It does not reach the CPI and therefore it is a serious problem for educational institutions, since supplies have become much more expensive," he considers. He insists, however, that schools cannot fully pass on the rising costs to families, as this would cause them a serious problem. Carles Camí, president of the Associació de Centers Autònoms de l'Escola Differentia, also highlights that the schools that have increased quotas move between 2% and 3%.
Among the items needed to start the course, the most inflationary are paper goods and footwear. The latter tends to be reused less due to wear and tear –paediatricians do not recommend reusing shoes between different children due to differences in the last of the feet–, and therefore it is among the products that are renewed each year. Its rise is close to the CPI, with 9.4% year-on-year in July.
For its part, paper products (notebooks or notebooks) have become more expensive by 23.1%. Companies in the sector confirm the increase. "Our products have risen in price between 15% and 25%," says Josep Antoni Buixeda, general director of Oxford, the popular brand of notebooks and notebooks belonging to the multinational Hamelin Brands. The company is the leader in Spain, with 15 million units distributed in the country and a market share of 50%. Behind this rise is the rise in the price of paper, which has doubled in a year. The ton cost 600 euros in 2021 and now reaches 1,300 euros. "This is what has made the products more expensive," says Buixeda. “Now – he continues – it remains to be seen how distributors apply it”.
At Abacus they calculate an average increase of 6% in back-to-school products, says Oriol Soler, co-director general of the cooperative. To mitigate this rise and not harm customers, they have maintained or even lowered the price of at least one item in each product category compared to 2021. "The suppliers have helped us," Soler points out. Despite the average increase, consumption has not slowed down and sales are holding up, he adds.
In the case of textbooks, the price has changed little, companies and sources from the publishing sector agree. "If inflation is affecting the economy as a whole, it will also affect publishers," they recognize in the Anele textbook manufacturers' association. However, they stress that the sector is not very inflationary. Many publishers have been able to avoid last year's rise in paper prices because the books for each course are prepared in advance to include the contents ahead of time, although they have not escaped slight increases. In the 2020-2021 academic year, the average price of textbooks was 17.97 euros, while in the 2021-2022 academic year it grew to 18.34 euros, according to data from the Federation of Publishers' Guilds.
Cent by cent and point by point, the cost of going back to school is not exempt from inflation this year.
