Cost of private education now twice as painful
PRIVATE school fees cost parents twice as much of their income as they did a generation ago, research has found.
A professional in the top 10 per cent of earners for someone in their 40s can expect to pay a quarter of their income on day secondary fees for one child.
However, in 1997, a parent in the same earning bracket would have spent an eighth of their annual income.
Frank Young, at the think tank Civitas, which conducted the research, said: “Middle-class families are being priced out of a traditional private school education as fees go up and up.”
Private schools have been accused of joining a “facilities arms race” to attract parents and, in some cases, international pupils paying higher fees.
However, they are facing pressure to find ways to lower fees so that fewer families are priced out.
In 1997, when a top 10 per cent earner in their 40s was on £32,296 a year, average day secondary fees were £4,182, according to Civitas.
Last year, a top-10-percent earner in their 40s on about £65,000 a year faced average day secondary fees of £16,654 for one child.
Civitas found that day school fees have risen by 77 per cent in real terms since 2000, while boarding fees have risen by 66 per cent over the same period after adjusting for inflation.
It would now cost almost a quarter of a million pounds, or £217,500, to send a child to a private day school from four to 18, according to Civitas.
If fees continue to rise at a similar rate to the last decade, analysis found that parents sending a four-year-old to private school in September would need to budget £300,000 for day fees.
Lord Lucas, a Conservative peer and editor of The Good Schools Guide, said: “Fees do not need to be so high. You could run a good independent school on much less.”
He said that independent schools could consider bigger class sizes in some subjects to reduce staff costs. He believes schools could save between 20 per cent and 30 per cent of costs by merging services such as HR and IT.
Part of the fee rises can be attributed to parents wanting to “be seen to be using an upmarket school” with facilities such as sports and arts centres, he added.
However, he said the focus on facilities was at times at the expense of “the important things, the core education, rather than the fluff ”.
A spokesman for the Independent Schools Council said: “Over a third of students at ISC schools receive some form of fee assistance and the amount schools provide for bursaries has risen at a faster rate than fees.”