Over the past 3 to 4 years the first graders, whose parents are employed in state-run organizations, have been presented with school supplies as gifts.
The school set worth 120 manats includes the following:
a school bag which costs 80 manats red or pink for girls and blue or black for boys;
stationery for the amount of 40 manats, including two 12-page quad-paged notebooks and 4 ruled notebooks, a pencil, a pen, an eraser, a pencil sharpener, a diary and a box of coloured pencils.
The lists of first graders are put together in advance. The gifts are subsequently distributed between organizations and agencies to be handed over to parents on behalf of the President.
However, the unemployed, small-scale vendors and private entrepreneurs are discontent with the situation as they consider it to be unfair.
These people have permanent jobs and a stable income and moreover, they are presented with gifts. I sometimes have no cash to buy food and I also need to buy school supplies for my child on my own, an outraged female bazaar vendor complains.
Many people, who are not employed in state-run enterprises, especially rural inhabitants, have the same opinion.
“Chronicles of Turkmenistan” has previously reported that there are few customers at school fairs.
Many parents cannot afford to buy the necessary school supplies for their children.In this connection the stores are offering to buy school uniforms and school supplies on credit by three month installments.
Apart from sets of school supplies, all first graders get another present from the President a laptop. There used to be fully operational “Lenovo” laptops, but in recent years they have been replaced with toy computers.