SA private schools have recorded the lowest fee hikes in the country for 2024

Private schools have recorded a national average of 5.85 per cent in fee increases this year. Find out which region of SA copped the sharpest hike.

Families of students at South Australian private schools have seen the lowest average fee increases of anywhere in the nation in 2024.

The average fee increase across the state was about three per cent as SA recorded the smallest rise in tuition costs for the third year in a row, a new report by Edstart, a lender that specialises in helping families pay school fees, has revealed.

This figure was well below the national average of 5.85 per cent and the highest increase of about 10 per cent at private schools in the ACT.

Most other states, including New South Wales (6.84 per cent) and Victoria (5.81 per cent) saw increases close to the national average.

The highest fee charged at an SA school was $31,251 which the Advertiser revealed in January as Pembroke School overtook St Peter’s College.

That is a 6.2 per cent increase on the $29,418 charged in 2023 – the largest percentage increase among 37 top schools surveyed by The Advertiser.

The top schools in Victoria and NSW had the highest 2024 fees in the country, with totals close to $50,000.

Pembroke School. Picture Dean Martin

Across Adelaide the most expensive area for private education, also with the highest fee increase in 2024, was the eastern suburbs with a median cost of almost $18,000 (an increase of 4.27 per cent).

The northern suburbs had the smallest increase in metropolitan Adelaide of 1.87 per cent (with a median cost of $7,130).

Private schools in regional SA also saw a small increase of just 1.81 per cent (the median cost was $6,305).

The eastern suburbs had the highest fee increase in 2024. Picture: Edstart

The Edstart report attributed the low average fee hike, in part, to the decision by Catholic Education to put a freeze on increases.

In August 2023, Catholic Education SA announced 84 schools would freeze fees in 2024, for the third year in a row.

Catholic schools saw fees rise on average by 1.66 per cent, while independent school tuition costs rose by almost double at 3.72 per cent.

Boys school fees rose by more than five per cent while girls schools saw an increase of about 3.8 per cent.

Mark Staker, appointed principal of Pembroke School. Picture supplied by Pembroke School

Coeducational schools saw the smallest increase at about 2.6 per cent.

SA boarding school fee increases were also the lowest in the nation at about 4.6 per cent and the largest increase was in Western Australia with 6.7 per cent.

Edstart chief executive Jack Stevens said rises in school fees came as a result of high inflation rates and “upward pressure on staff wages”.

Rising staff wages are also behind the higher fee increase with many non-government schools offering pay rises to attract and retain teaching staff,” Mr Stevens said.

“With salaries comprising around 70 per cent of a school’s expenditure, this can place significant pressure on their budget.”

In 2023 the average fee increase at SA schools was 1.94 per cent – less than half the national aver­age of 4.49 per cent.

In 2023 the highest school fee charged in SA was $29,450, compared with $46,344 in Victoria and $46,300 in NSW.

Fees in Adelaide’s eastern suburbs rose the most between 2022 and 2023 (3.25 per cent), while those in the northern suburbs had the lowest ­increase (0.52 per cent).