Privately educating a child born in 2018 could cost $500,000 each as school fees skyrocket
AS SCHOOL costs skyrocket over the next 10 years, some parents could find themselves forced to fork out huge sums of money.
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WOULD you spend $1 million to educate two children?
That’s the dilemma facing parents of children born this year who will start school in either 2022 or 2023, according to the ASG Planning for Education Index released today.
ASG provides funds for parents to save for their children’s education and it has estimated a staggering increase in the costs of schooling.
It believes it could cost a whopping $475,342 to educate one child through the private system, and its estimates have soared 61 per cent in the last 10 years.
The index calculates the cost of private, faith-based and public education and believes prices will skyrocket further.
It estimates the full cost of primary and secondary education for a child born in 2018 could cost $66,320 in the public system, while faith-based education was estimated to cost $240,679 per child.
The figures include the cost of school fees as well as an estimate for extra-curricular activities, computers, travel expenses, uniforms, school excursions and camps.
They are in line with a rise in education spending recorded in the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Household Expenditure Survey released last year, which found costs rose by up to 44 per cent in the six years between 2009-10 and 2015-16. Most of this increase came from extra spending on school fees.
For its forecast, the index surveyed 13,500 parents and estimated it would cost about $54,940 for non-fee education costs at private schools in metropolitan areas.
This cost dropped to about $47,950 in faith-based schools and $43,442 in government schools.
Overall private education costs were expected to see the highest increase, with estimates rising by a staggering 61 per cent or $180,128 in the last decade.
This dwarfs the 34 per cent rise in wage growth in the same period.
While estimated price rises in other sectors was not quite as steep, they were still significant. Faith-based education costs jumped by 54 per cent and public education was forecast to rise 23 per cent.
Sydney was the most expensive city in Australia to send a child to private school, with prices estimated at 15 per cent higher than the national metropolitan average. Brisbane was the cheapest.
When it came to public education, Melbourne was the most expensive city, while Brisbane had the most expensive faith-based education.
Despite the dramatic 10-year increase, this year’s figures are actually an improvement on last year thanks to slower price growth within secondary education.
As a result, the forecast cost of a private education fell by $11,751 compared to last year.
ASG chief operating officer Bruce Hawkins said the estimated cost of education had risen at more than double the rate of inflation over the past 10 years and outstripped the growth in wages over the same period.
“This means that education costs are demanding a far greater share of the family wallet than in the past, placing more burden on the average family, already challenged by the rising cost of living,” Mr Hawkins said.
“If you have three children, the cost of educating them in Sydney or Melbourne’s private education system could top $1.6 million. That’s significantly more than the purchase price of the average family home.
“The index also debunks the myth, a government education is a free education, with the
latest figures showing Australian families could spend on average $66,320 per child on a
so-called, free education.”
But Association of Independent Schools of NSW chief executive Geoff Newcombe toldThe Daily Telegraph, he thought the ASG’s estimated costs of schooling appeared “significantly inflated”.
Dr Newcombe said the median level of tuition fees per student for a Sydney school in 2016 was $6074.
“In metropolitan Sydney, 69 per cent of independent schools charge tuition fees of less than $10,000 and only 13 per cent charge more than $20,000,” he said.
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