The price of secondary education has jumped 185 per cent since 2003 – a price lift exceeded only by tobacco,gas and other household fuels,and medical and hospital services. General inflation was 68.7 per cent over the same period.
The price of preschool and primary school has climbed by 135 per cent while tertiary education prices rose 121 per cent over the past two decades.
The ABS figures reflect increases in tuition fees only,not the general shift in enrolments to non-government schools. The percentage of Australian students enrolled at Catholic and independent schools has grown from 31.4 per cent in 2002 to 35.5 per cent last year.
Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia chief executive Christopher Duncan said education price rises were driven by increases in teacher pay and the cost of running small classes.
He said steep additions in compliance and technology costs,plus investments in student wellbeing and disability support were other contributors.
Independent Schools Australia chief executive Graham Catt said the inflation figures “really can’t give a meaningful picture”. Staff salaries accounted for about three-quarters of school costs,and technology,building and maintenance costs were also significant,he said.
The National Catholic Education Commission executive director Jacinta Collins said:“The figures relate to the overall cost-of-living expenses and also likely reflect enhancements to the learning environment and participation over that period.”
But Trevor Cobbold,of the state schools lobby group Save Our Schools,said the changes “reflected increasing fees even when government funding has massively favoured private schools”.
“The large increases in fees and government funding have fuelled the arms race in gold-plated facilities,” he said.
The Hindsons said increasing costs for required laptops,uniforms and textbooks had particularly stretched their family budget. Their daughter,Lillian,needed a $700 laptop for her VCE studies this year.
The couple also support two other children – Molly,12,and Austin,8 – from Chris’ previous relationship who attend separate schools in the Macedon Ranges. The extra cost of secondary school compared to primary education had been acutely felt,the middle-income pair said.
“It has put us behind on bills,” Stephanie said. “We’ve scaled back on family activities on weekends and that sort of thing.”
“We’ll make some sacrifices for them,” Chris added. “It’s hard,but it’s best for them long-term.”
Melbourne woman Ruth,who has three children in a state school,said rising interest rates had limited her ability to contribute to school fees this year.
“We actually opted out of making the school contribution at the start of the year,in the hope that we will be in a better position to do it at the end,” she said.
“Usually,we would put in over the suggested amount to support music,arts,language etc,but this year we’ve just had to put our heads down and try to get on top of things.”
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A recent survey by children’s education charity The Smith Family found four in five respondents had seen child poverty increase this year due to cost-of-living increases,and expected that to worsen over the next 12 months.
Emma Rowe,senior lecturer in education at Deakin University,said the financial barriers for secondary education were substantial.
“We know that secondary education is significantly related to social mobility and life opportunities,access to university and access to prestigious networks. In other words – it has strong ties with social equity,” she said.
“It is concerning that the financial barriers and cost of entry to secondary education are rising so sharply,and as a society,we are so accepting of the marketisation of secondary education.”
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In Australia,18 per cent of funding for primary,secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education comes from private sources,compared with the OECD average of 10 per cent.
Education expert Peter Adams said Australia spent a lot of money on education but did not have reliable and agreed measurement of the impact of the expenditure.
“International and national tests suggest the impact may not be as great as hoped,” he said.
The Reserve Bank has lifted the cash rate by 3.75 per cent over the past 12 months,stating that inflation at 7 per cent was still too high and would not fall quickly.
The ABS collects prices for thousands of products,grouped into 87 categories,to measure inflation. This includes prices at hundreds of schools each year.
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