Competition is healthy as long as it is fair, and it is with this in mind that the Finance Ministry has launched an inquiry into school items by involving the participation of the thousands of parents who, each year, have to buy uniforms, books and stationery for their children who attend school.

Through the inquiry, which is being carried out by the Office of Fair Trading, the government intends to determine whether there is some form of abuse that is forcing parents to buy these items at a higher price from particular shops of the schools’ choice, and whether the items sold are of good quality.

The inquiry comes in the wake of many complaints by parents who feel that it is not right that some schools oblige them to buy products their children need from particular retailers, when these same items could be bought from elsewhere – and probably cheaper too.

It has happened, at the end of each scholastic year, that parents are given a list of books and other items that their son or daughter will be needing for the following scholastic year, apart from the new uniforms that need to be bought because, as everyone knows, children grow up quickly and regular use also means that clothes get torn or lose colour.

Often, schools inform parents that they can buy these items only from certain shops.

The idea of the inquiry – which is a much stronger term than a simple survey – is to determine whether exclusive contracts between schools and retailers have negative effects on prices as well as the quality of the items that are sold, and whether these offer any benefits to the same schools.

The investigation will also look into the type of services that are offered to parents buying school products.

It will seek information on the choice of suppliers, availability and quality of products and the type of compulsory uniform that is requested by schools.

One particular common complaint that the inquiry should also look into is the reason behind schools changing the books that their children need for any particular scholastic year.

It often happens that parents who have two or more children in the same school – and who think that books can be passed on from one son or daughter to another – find that this is not the case as books are changed from one year to another.

Another complaint is that schools very often demand that stationery and other items their children need are not pre-determined before the academic year starts. Similarly, in cases where children have more than one teacher, it sometimes happens that each and every teacher demands different stationery – sometimes accompanied with subtle hints as from where one can buy them.

There are also occasions when teachers suggest certain books to students which do not form part of the school’s official list, and again they have no qualms in telling their students from where to buy them. They are of course doing it with the best of intentions, but parents’ suspicions are raised when the same bookshop is mentioned.

Parents often also complain that children cannot wear raincoats or coats that are of a different colour to the school uniform – and these items are not cheap to buy.

The inquiry that has been launched covers more than 150 government, Church and private schools, and will take the form of two questionnaires – one that will be sent to schools to get their point of view, and the other will be distributed to parents to also get their feedback.

It is hoped that the inquiry will be closed before the end of this scholastic year, in time for any measures to be introduced before the next academic year starts in September or October. In this sense, parents are being urged to hand in their answers in the shortest time possible to speed up the process.