Turkish parents have to cut down on regular expenses to fund school costs

According to a recent survey by Ipsos, a vast majority of parents in Turkey are facing serious difficulties in financing school expenditures because of the high inflation that rose over 83% in September.

The survey, conducted with the participation of 568 parents between 15 September and 15 October, shows that the rising prices in items related to education have had a severe impact on the majority of families with kids.

While 70% said that it has become very difficult for them to pay for such items in the face of the annual increase in prices, 24% said it has become quite hard, though not unmanageable, and only 6% said they have not felt the impact much, or at all.

81% of the parents have had to cut down on their regular expenses in order to finance the education costs and other needs of their children, and they have been forced to cut down particularly on entertainment, food services, food orders, and clothing.

64% said they had to cut down on consumption of food services, 62% on clothing, 53% on food orders, 50% on social entertainment, 46% on personal care products, 43% on kitchen expenses, 28% on cleaning products, 25% on mobile phones and communication services, 24% on transportation, 23% on electricity and natural gas consumption, 16% on TV subscriptions.

67% of the parents still had to cut down on school expenses as well, including stationary products and school dresses. 36% of the participants said they could not afford to buy news school dresses for their kids and instead have had them use their old ones.

One fourth of the parents said that they make sandwiches for their kids to eat at school in order to save from the unaffordable cost of eating at school cafeterias.