School fee database reveals Adelaide Botanic High will be one of South Australia’s most expensive public schools

The cost of a public education varies significantly across SA — fees and charges for a secondary education can reach $7500 at the most expensive state schools. Find out the maximum fee charged by every public school in our searchable database. 

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Adelaide’s new flagship public high school is also one of the priciest, as figures show the fees and charges for a secondary state education can reach $7500 at the most expensive schools - and that’s before uniforms.

Adelaide Botanic High, which will open next week with about 350 students across Years 8 and 9, is charging an $855 annual “materials and services” fee as well as expecting students to have laptops.

In those year levels its base charge will be second only to Marryatville High’s $885, according to figures supplied by the Education Department for every public school.

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Tuition is notionally free in public schools, while the materials and services fees cover costs such as IT, textbook hire, photocopied material, subject supplies and library resources.

Many schools ask parents to pay for laptops or tablets on top of materials and services fees, making total charges difficult to compare.

Adelaide Botanic High parents are paying an initial $500 deposit this month on laptop packages ranging between $1265 and $1580.

Principal Alistair Brown said the school’s interim council had considered fees at comparable inner suburban schools in setting the $855 materials and services charge, which was approved by a poll of parents.

“There are payment plans available to all parents,” Mr Brown said.

Adelaide Botanic High School will open for term 1 next week. Picture: AAP / Kelly Barnes

At this year’s fee levels, a Marryatville High education costs $4425 over five years, plus Year 8 parents are expected to buy a Lenovo Thinkpad with insurance for about $1550. Those same students will need a replacement computer at similar costs when they reach Year 11, taking total charges to parents to about $7500.

Marryatville’s director of services Hazel Bashford said it was hard to “compare apples with apples” because some schools made additional charges, such as for individual subjects, on top of the material and services fee. Marryatville charged extra only for its special interest music and tennis programs, she said.

Ms Bashford said higher fees meant better resources for students and “for a year of schooling it’s still relatively cheap”.

Brighton Secondary is charging the highest official fee of $1032 for Years 10 to 12 students, but that includes a MacBook laptop. For Years 8 and 9 the base fee is $740, and students have to bring their own iPad.

Individual subject charges can vary greatly. For example, Glenunga International High last year charged between $20 and $120 for a range of subjects across all year levels.

Highgate School is the priciest standalone primary school with a materials and services fee of $518. It was as high as $780 in 2016 before the school removed its laptop charge from the base fee.

The department said schools could not force parents to pay for a laptop or tablet if the cost was charged separately to the materials and services fee, and must provide students “access” to a device. But The Advertiser has previously reported that parents feel compelled to pay, fearing their children will be disadvantaged if they don’t.

Nadia Tregoweth with her three boys Adam, 13, starting Year 8 at Adelaide Botanic High, and twins Jamie and Daniel, 10, going into Year 5 at Nailsworth Primary. Picture: Matt Turner

The “standard sum” – the legislated, annually indexed amount that schools can legally recover for materials and services if parents don’t pay willingly – is $241 for primary students this year and $318 for secondary.

But polls of parents at individual schools can raise the legally recoverable amount, taking the statewide average fees to $282 for primary students and $431 for secondary.

About half of stand-alone primary schools do not charge more than the standard sum. But most high, combined and area schools do.

The Education Department said schools needed support of a majority of parents who responded to polls to raise fees beyond the standard sum.

Asked about the equity issue of schools in wealthy areas being able to charge much higher fees, the department said each school’s fees were set “based on the curriculum requirements of the students”.

Low income families eligible for the School Card do not have to pay fees and schools can negotiate payment plans with others struggling to pay, it said.

This story was first published on January 22, 2019.