This newspaper has received letters from parents complaining about the problems they encounter at the start of every scholastic year because of what they describe as lack of planning on the part of schools. Other parents have chosen to call in to express their frustration at the way the schools manage the first few days.

In a nutshell, the parents have complained on two main things – the fact that they have been rushing to stationary shops each and every day to buy a list of items that are requested by the teachers (and in secondary schools this is even worse because children have eight, nine and sometimes more subjects); and the fact that their children have had to carry all their books to school for the first few days because it took schools a number of days to assign students their own lockers, where these exist, and to come up with a comprehensive time-table.

Let’s start with the first issue. Parents have said that, during the first days of school, and sometimes even beyond the first week, their children have returned home with a list of items that needed to be purchased. Many times these items were needed for the following day, and this therefore forced parents to go to stationery shops practically each and every day, finding long queues made up of other parents in the same predicament.

This was an even heavier burden for parents who have a job, as this meant trying to find the time to do these errands before shops close at 7pm. That most people finish work at 5pm or afterwards increases the pressure too, and having to do this for consecutive days is not easy at all.

Parents have asked why schools are not able to compile a list of the items that are needed by each and every teacher for each and every subject, and give such a list to the students on the first day of school, so that parents have to go to the stationer’s only once. Frankly speaking, the parents are not that wrong. In most schools, meetings are held for teachers before the start of the scholastic year, and this would be the ideal occasion for such a list to be compiled.

Yet, this situation repeats itself year after year and, in spite of the complaints made (The Malta Independent received similar letters last year too), the schools do not bother to change their system to create less inconvenience for the parents.

With regard to the second issue, it is quite sad to see young children having to carry such a big weight on their backs just because schools are not efficient enough to provide a full time-table and a locker system as from the first day of school.

As it happened, there were occasions when children have had to carry all their books to school for five days or more. Parents who have helped them carry their bags found them heavy too, let alone the young ones who sometimes have had to go up one or two storeys with such a heavy load.

The Education Department, as well as the Health Department, should see to such matters, which are leading to physical problems for the children, now and when they get older. More and more children are suffering from back injuries because of this situation, while in others the symptoms emerge when they grow older.

We are sure that with some forward planning and good management, schools can resolve these matters. It does not take that much. Just as much as students are expected to have all their uniforms and books in order on the first day of school, schools should be prepared to receive them and get going on the first day too.