Back to school with the right image

By Athena Karsera

SHOPS island-wide are bustling with schoolchildren and their parents preparing for the new academic year.

Stationery and school bags must be carefully selected as, according to a young source, one wrong purchase could seriously affect someone’s popularity.

Not just any old school bag will do. Younger pupils go for their favourite cartoon heroes, classic Barbie, and the super trendy Spice Girls. High school pupils go for designer labels in an attempt to be as ‘in’ as their classmates.

Stationery must match, causing ‘same-name’ pencils to cost three times as much as a plain old HB.

Mavros stores spokesman, Dinos Kyriakides, noted than although it is still too soon to calculate a fluctuation in sales compared to last year, he has noticed that a larger number of shops now stock ‘back to school’ goods.

The continuing mania for prestigious trainers also adds to making going back to school an expensive business for parents.

Government elementary schools will begin normal classes on September 14, while high school students have registration for the new academic year on September 10.