Italy and Spain pay the highest price for basic school equipment despite having lower wages than France, Germany and the UK, a Euronews analysis of Europe’s five largest economies found. It follows research on 20 essential school items — such as pencils, pens, erasers, highlighters, markers, pencil cases, notebooks, diaries, drawing pads, scissors, etc — sold across supermarket chains and school shops within the same price range. The heaviest burden is on Italian families, who need to save around 10.80%, or €202.71, of their monthly income to buy just the bare minimum, textbooks excluded. Ital…