Back to School Shopping

Balancing the overall shock that comes when you take a person, who has been living in an underdeveloped country, like Benin, for a year, and then putting them not only in the developed world, like the United States, but a Target no less, is a task that most Peace Corps volunteers face. But on my second trip to Target I think I handled myself well; making it out of the store in less than an hour, compared to the first four hour trip. Of course this was not without a slight pause in front of the back to school supplies section, which is a marvel paired with the dollar section at the front of the store.

Students in the United States are currently gearing up for back to school, obvious by the parents being followed by their whining children trying to distract them with things not necessarily on their list of supplies for the new school year. It isn't hard to spot when I used to be one of those kids, stocking up on spiral notebooks, three-ring binders, dividers, packs of blue, black, and red pens, a calculator, which if used to its full capacity I am certain could help you do quantum physics or nuclear fission, 6 packs of 100 sheets of lined notebook paper, highlighters, protractor, compass, colored pencils, markers, and of course a backpack to put all this stuff in for transport back and forth on the bus and from classroom to classroom.  This doesn't even take into account back to school clothes shopping, which I would squirrel away money for from my summer job, and squander three times as fast when I was a teenager.

It is a stark contrast to what many of my students will be facing in Benin in another two months, when school starts in October, after students have helped finished working in the fields, providing them with the time to go back to school. At this point the students will go to the market and buy their cahiers (notebooks, which are half the size of American-type notebooks, and without the hard, plastic and cardboard fronts and backs). Then there is the standard metal box, which all students buy that has a compass and ruler, a pencil, and I believe one red and one blue pen, although those may have to be purchased separately. Most students don't have backpacks, and it is not rare to see paper bags that we, in the United States, give gifts in used to carry notebooks back and forth to school, and not on a bus, but by foot, and if you are lucky by bike. As for clothes, well all the students have to wear khaki uniforms, which may be bought new, but mostly are taken out, washed and mended for the new school year.

Now I have only considered the lists, not the costs of these lists. Huntington National Bank's Annual Backpack Index in Columbus, Ohio, provides and compares the amount spent to fill up a child's backpack here in the United States. For 2010 the statistics read as follows:

Elementary School: $472
Middle School: $535
High School: $998

As for clothes, one article from Louisiana reports that according to LSU AgCenter, the average family will spent a little over $600 for clothes, shoes, and electronics.

Those cahiers and the box of supplies in Benin equates to less than $10, which many students struggle to buy, and know they have to make last all school year. They can't lose a notebook, or fill one up too quickly. The one pencil they get is sharpened down to a nub, and since it doesn't have an eraser they use both sides of the pencil. Then there is the case of the missing chalk. If I leave little bits of chalk my students quickly take them, to use as white out at home, or in the case of younger students to eat for the calcium.

Finally there is one cost at least the students here in the United States don't have, which is paying to go to school. Education is free, provided by the government, but in Benin, the government doesn't even have the money to pay its teachers for months at a time. The students pay for their education. At Materi this price is equal to $25 (half the price of a pair of tennis shoes, maybe less), which is paid throughout the school year. This means not everyone is even going to school, especially girls, who may come from families whose parents don't believe in educating a girl, or choose to only use their money to pay for their brothers to go to school. For more statistics on the state of Benin's education visit here.