Chamber of Commerce’s poll on school expenses

Bangkok, 10 April 2013  Thai Chamber of Commerce’s latest poll on parents spending before the opening of the new school term shows this year expenses have increased significantly from that of the the same period last year. According to Poll center director Vachira Koontaweethep, 44.8% of the people surveyed agreed that this year’s overall expenses on schooling have increased from last year’s due to higher commodity prices. Most of the expenses go towards paying for tuition fee, text books, equipment, and uniforms. On an average, each kid costs the parent around 9,128 baht at the opening of the new school year, pushing the national expenses on education to 53.6 billion baht, a 6.7% increase from last year’s. Meanwhile,Chiang Mai’s school uniform market has been lively as parents have been out shopping for their kids’ uniforms before school starts on 21st of May. Many parents admitted that they have to be careful with their spending thanks to the nation’s unstable economy, and that the prices of school uniforms have gone up significantly from last year’s; forcing them to spend much more than they did last year in spite of the government’s allowance of 199 baht for school uniforms for each student.