Residents embark on shopping frenzy as schools reopen today

BUKOBA:  AS schools reopen today across the country, long queues of parents and guardians in Bukoba Municipality were busy over the weekend   buying school items for their children.

As parents make efforts to send their children to school, a report from December 30, 2023, indicates that Kagera Region is projected to enrol approximately 91,542 preschool pupils (under five years) and   89,600 pupils in Standard One.

A spot check by the ‘Daily News’ in several streets along Jamhuri Road and Luangisa Street established long queues of parents and guardians in Bukoba Municipality accompanied by their children at bookshops, stationeries and uniform and shoe shops as they scrambled to get school necessities.

Ms Janeth Kaimukirwa (28), who has two children, the eldest in Form Two and another in Standard Five, said prices for uniforms hiked, posing a real problem for parents with more than one pupil.

Mr Dawson Byombarilwa (32), a petty trader based at the Bukoba Central Market Complex, listed essential items parents and guardians needed to buy for their children  to include school uniforms, steel metal boxes, exercise books, pens and text books.

“The recent increase of fuel price has necessitated a slight increase in prices for uniforms and other items. However, the prices of textbooks, pens and other classroom supplies have remained relatively the same,” he said.