Each and every year, I cannot understand why teachers and schools cannot come up with an easier way – easier, for the parents, that is – for handing out a list of items students need to buy.

It so happens that every day during the first week of school, my daughter, in secondary school, comes home with a list of things that her teachers give her to buy. I have had to go to the stationer every single day of the first week of school. There I have met other parents doing the same thing – some I have seen more than once, and we have all complained about the same thing.

Schools should be kind enough to prepare just one list of items that children need for their different subjects, and hand it out to the students on the first day.

It may take longer at the stationer because more items will be bought on one day, but at least it saves the trouble of having to leave home every day. I have another child, a toddler, whom I have to drag with me – just because teachers and schools just do not care about the hassle they create.

The Malta Union of Teachers speaks a lot about the rights of their members. But maybe it should also encourage them to create less inconvenience to parents.

S. Micallef

Sliema