Before a Filipino child writes a single word this school year, someone, usually a mother, is already doing the math.

How many notebooks can we afford? Which brand of crayon? Can a ruler be shared between siblings?

This week, the Department of Trade and Industry released its annual school supply price guide.

It read less like an economic bulletin than a pulse check on the country’s faith in its pockets.

Seventeen school supply items (roughly 9 percent of the DTI’s list) have increased in price by 3 percent to 10 percent, or P1 to P5.

These include notebooks, pencils, crayons and a certain ruler brand.

Meanwhile, 29 items are now cheaper by up to P10, and 101 remain unchanged, including all pens, erasers, sharpeners.

The list has expanded, too: 48 new items were added, offering more choices in a market still reeling from inflation and stretched household budgets.

“We want every child to return to the classroom equipped and proud,” said Trade Secretary Cristina Roque, as if the price of a pencil could carry that weight.

The school supply list has become an unofficial barometer of how seriously a government takes its poor.

For all the fanfare about education reform, universal access and digital classrooms, this is where it starts.

In the checkout line, with a mother weighing two notebooks, quietly asking: Can we stretch it?