The start of term is a spike in every Ghanaian household budget, and most of it is avoidable. Uniforms, books, stationery, shoes and a bag, for every child, all in the same fortnight as everybody else.
Buy before the rush, not in it
Prices for uniform cloth, exercise books and school shoes rise in the weeks before a term begins, because every parent in the city is buying the same things at the same time. Buy in the middle of the previous term. It is the single largest saving available in this category and it costs nothing but remembering.
Uniforms
Most schools specify the cloth and the style rather than a supplier, which means you have a choice:
- Buy the cloth in the market and have the uniform sewn. Cheapest, especially for more than one child, and it fits properly. — Where to buy fabric, and how to use a tailor
- Buy ready-made from the market stalls that make school uniforms, which is quicker and still well below the school’s own price.
- Buy from the school, which is the most expensive and sometimes compulsory. Ask before assuming either way.
Buy a size up. Children grow through a school year, and a uniform bought to fit exactly is bought twice.
Check what is actually required: the school badge, the PE kit, the colour of the socks and the shoes. These are where an otherwise correct uniform gets sent home.
Books and stationery
Exercise books, pens and stationery are cheapest by the pack or the carton from the wholesale shops of Accra Central, and dearest bought one at a time from a neighbourhood shop in the first week of term.
Textbooks are their own problem, and the second-hand trade is substantial.
— School textbooks in Ghana — Books and bookshops in Accra
Buy a term’s stationery at once, not weekly. It is both cheaper and one fewer errand.
Shoes and bags
School shoes are sold everywhere, and the cheapest ones do not survive a term of a Ghanaian schoolyard. This is the category where the middle price is the right one.
Bags last for years if you buy a strong one, and a cheap bag fails at the strap in the first rainy season. Look at the stitching at the straps and the base, not at the picture on the front.
The second-hand trade carries both, often in far better condition than cheap new stock.
— Where to buy second-hand clothes
Buying for several children, or with other parents
Wholesale prices start at quantities a single family rarely needs, which is why buying with other parents works: a carton of exercise books, a bolt of uniform cloth or a dozen pairs of socks split three ways is bought at the wholesale price by all three.
What school actually costs
Uniforms and books are the visible part. Fees, levies, PTA dues, transport and feeding are the rest, and they are worth knowing before choosing a school.
— What education costs in Accra — Schools in Accra — International schools in Accra