Bandar Seri Begawan - Parents and students visited textbook and stationery stores en masse yesterday as they rushed to complete last-minute shopping for the new school year beginning today, though it has been found that some textbooks for the new syllabus are still not available.

Starting in the morning and going on all the way through to last night, shoppers were seen picking up new supplies for school.

Speaking to the Borneo Bulletin, a salesman from Bismi in Serusop said the rush began at roughly llam yesterday. Note books, lamination for those books as well as shoes, uniforms and bags were quickly snapped up.

Asked if any of the textbooks were sold out or were not available, he said a government issued MIB textbook called "Negaraku Tanggungjawabku", which has six volumes for Years 1-6 have not been received so far and the textbook volumes for Years 1, 3 and 5 are sold out.

He added that they are awaiting new supply of the books.

Another store, Samima in Kiulap, also received a large influx of parents and students yesterday.

Customers have been buying all sorts of school supplies from the store, including school uniforms, shoes, workbooks, textbooks and various other stationery items.

They too did not have the aforementioned MIB textbook in stock and are awaiting a new shipment.

They said that they will be updating their customers via SMS and their Facebook page on the arrival of new stock.

Meanwhile, a source told the Bulletin that stationery stores in the country have not received books for the entire Year 8 syllabus barring the 'Social Studies' textbook. They are yet to arrive from the Ministry of Education (MoE).

"For three weeks in a row we have contacted the MoE, asking when the books will be arriving," said the source. "Each week they have said 'next week', but we still haven't received anything."

Disgruntled parents have reportedly not responded very positively to the news of books not having arrived, venting their anger on shopkeepers.

"Parents have been shouting at us because they've not been able to find the books, and `for not booking early'. We are trying to help them, but the supplies haven't come yet."