- Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer
Parents/guardians hunt for bargains at the recently held Back-to-School Fair at the Chinese Benevolent Association on Old Hope Road in St. Andrew

As summer fizzles and a new school year dawns, the pressures of preparation for the new term have begun to impact some parents.

For many, the most difficult tasks are sourcing tuition, books and uniforms - the exact difficulties that face Nadine Green and Nicole Facey.

For Nadine, a mother of two, the most stressful part of back-to-school preparation is finding the school fees. So far, she has been able to purchase all the necessary books, stationery and uniforms for both her boys from as early as July to beat the rush. But finding the $18,000 tuition for schooling her children has been a strain.

Quite a sum

"It might not sound like much, but if you have to find all that from your pocket, it is quite a sum," she said. They can be paid on a term by term basis, but she pays them in full so her children are not "hassled" during the school year. She is waiting until the end of the month when she receives her salary to sort out this problem.

However, while Nadine has been able to do most of her preparation for the new year, Nicole, an unemployed mother of six from south western St. Andrew, the situation is more adverse. Not only does she have to worry about tuition, but there is no money to buy books or uniforms, and she worries about lunch money and transportation costs for her children.

Nicole's problems were not always this severe, she explains. They started when her haemophiliac son, Richard, was diagnosed HIV positive after a blood transfusion went wrong some years ago. He developed complications arising from the infection and died in February of this year.

Caring for her ill son put Nicole out of work. Formerly self-employed, she had to close down her business to attend to his needs. His treatment alone caused many of her other children to stay out of school or at times go hungry. And now with another haemophiliac son in her hands she is a little worried, ,although not admitting it, about how she will find the funds to send five of her children to school this year.

"God will have to work it out," is what she told The Sunday Gleaner. While her husband is employed, his earnings are barely enough to purchase all the family's necessities due to personal debts he has to repay.

Extremely expensive

Books for her eldest child, who is attending a secondary school in the community are extremely expensive, she explains, ranging between $2,000 and $4,000 each.

On top of that, sometimes there is barely enough money to send the child to school or to buy him lunch. This year that problem might be resolved, because the school has offered to help him. But Nicole's five other children may still need help in that regard.

The solution to her problems is contingent on her landing a job in the next two weeks. But that has been going slowly. She received a job opportunity about a month ago but had to forego it to look after her haemophiliac son who was in hospital at the time.

She got another offer at the Coffee Board recently to pick coffees, but the salary is meagre.

G.M.