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School supply shortage hits GenSan

By Rommel G. Rebollido

| August 23, 2022 - 8:12 pm

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 23 Aug) – Bookstores and school supply shops in this city have been running out of notebooks and other school items as classes resumed on Monday.

23shortage copy — _{SHORTAGE. Only a few school supplies are left in a popular bookstore chain at a mall in Lagao, General Santos City on Tuesday (23 August 2022).

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MindaNews photo by ROMMEL REBOLLIDO

Parents of schoolchildren rushed to buy the items over the weekend after word went around that stores had run out of supplies.

“They scrambled for whatever was left on the shelves,” said a bookstore clerk at Fitmart Mall.

A total of 154,160 students from pre-school to senior high school trooped to 181 schools, both public and private, in the city starting Monday, according to schools division superintendent Romelito Flores of the Department of Education.

The local office of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said most wholesalers have failed to anticipate the influx of buyers, having only their old inventory to sell.

“Seemingly, they are unaware that face-to-face classes were to open this month. What they were expecting perhaps was blended learning and no need for additional stocks of school supplies,” said Eddie de Asis, an officer of DTI General Santos.

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The stocks that the stores have in their shelves are from pre-pandemic days, the DTI officer said. Most of the bigger stores, including those in malls, almost have no notebooks and school supplies to sell, he added.

A bookstore clerk at Fitmart Mall said they have run out of erasers, rulers, writing notebooks, glue, sharpeners, binder notebooks, sign pens and limited stocks of composition notebooks.

De Asis said there is a possibility that manufacturers of school supplies failed to foresee the problem. “It could be that they lack manpower, raw materials and logistics,” De Asis added.

DTI said none among the stores in the city can say when the supplies could be replenished. (Rommel G. Rebollido / MindaNews)