Cost of Living in Australia: School Fees

In a previous post where I discussed cost of living comparisons, I promised (rather foolishly I think) to try to unravel school fee variations from state to state. I am often saying what a big country Australia is, perhaps I should bear that in mind when I make such rash promises!

The BobinOz rough guide to school fees in Australia.

First, let me make it clear that these are the fees that apply to Australian citizens and residents, ie, Australian tax payers. If you are here on a temporary visa then different fees may apply or you might get a grant.

The three main types of school:

• Public (state) – run by and funded by government.
• Private – run privately but subsidised by the government.
• Catholic – run by Catholics and also subsidised by government.

Public schools.

The Australian Government has an obligation to provide state education via public schools to all children in Australia. Each public school has an obligation to accept all of the children within its catchment area. If they don’t have enough room, they must find some. If they don’t have enough teachers, they must hire some more.

All public education in Australia is free, but there is confusion because each school can charge a “Voluntary Contributions” and these seem to range from $60 per annum to as much as $1,000.

Interestingly, the $1000 figure came from a news article entitled “anger over school fees” from the Herald Sun and was about schools in the state of Victoria. Victoria is where Vivienne was talking about when she mentioned high public school fees in Australia in her open email to me.

So what happens if you don’t pay these voluntary contributions? I spoke to somebody who didn’t pay and they told me they got bombarded with reminders constantly, but that ultimately nothing specifically happened. But she only missed the payment for one year, she couldn’t handle the pressure!

I’m sure each school deals with it differently, some may prevent your child from taking music lessons or sport for example and no doubt if too many people don’t pay, the voluntary contributions fees would go up for those that do. I’m sure they will get their money from somewhere.

If you want to know some of the alleged tricks schools get up to to ensure these voluntary contributions are paid, then check out the above mentioned article over at the Herald Sun.

In addition to the voluntary contributions, parents will also have to pay for stationery, books, school uniform, sports equipment, musical instruments, school trips and any other items needed that are relevant to their studies.

About two thirds of Australian children go to public (state) schools.

Private schools.

If you want to send your child to a private school, you’re better off doing it here in Australia than you are back in England. That’s because, if I’m not mistaken, if you choose private education in England the government says “thank you very much” and pockets the money it saved by you choosing not to send your child to one of the government run schools.

Here in Australia, the government realise that your decision to go private is saving them money, so they effectively subsidise your payments by paying a grant to all private schools who in turn can reflect that in their fees to students.

So how much is private education? This is where it could get messy but I have found a way to make this real simple…………

Between $800 and $29,000 a year.

Want to try and guess where you need to go to spend $29,000 a year on education? Yes, you’ve got it. Victoria! Geelong Grammar apparently.

So as you can see, fees vary wildly. But generally speaking, the older your child the more expensive it gets. Typically the fees are in these bands:

• Prep to year 6.
• Years 7 to 9.
• Years 10 to 12.

Furthermore, good discounts are available for sending more of your children, if you have them, to the same school. Some payments are tax deductible as well.

Catholic schools.

Catholic schools are funded in the same way as private schools in as much as they charge a fee to their students and they receive a government grant. But it appears that Catholic schools are substantially cheaper on average than private schools.

Expect to pay between $600 and $3000 a year.

According to the government, they pump $22.7 billion of public funding into state education (2.2m students) and a further $7.6 billion into private (independent and Catholic) schools (1.1m students).

School fees rough summary.

• Public (state) schools: $60-$1000 a year. Average $150
• Private schools: $800 to $29,000 a year. Average $6,300
• Catholic schools: $600 to $3000 a year. Average $1,200

Plus the cost of uniforms, books and other stuff as previously mentioned. The average figures quoted are purely a BobinOz guess. I don’t think they’d be far out, but then I wouldn’t, would I?

Education costs in England.

Over in the UK, public (state) education is completely free, providing that hasn’t changed since I went to school.

Average private school costs are around £11,000 a year and Britain’s most expensive private school is Eton at £24,000 a year.

You could argue that private schools in the UK are more “elite” than they are here in Australia. After all only 7% of UK children attend private schools compared with over 30% here.

You could also argue that the quality of education in some of the UK’s state schools is equal to the education that some Australians pay for here privately. If that argument could be proved, then without a doubt the UK would win this cost comparison on the price of education. But until anybody can prove that……..

Who wins?

Public (state) schools here in Australia are more expensive than they are in the UK. But not by a lot. (Unless you go to Victoria). Once you’ve bought all the extra stuff, like the school uniform, stationery, sports kit etc, I’d like to wager Australian public schools can’t be anything much higher than 30% more expensive than the UK’s schools.

But private schools are cheaper here than in England. Quite a bit cheaper. In fact, at the least 50% cheaper, possibly as much as 70% cheaper when you compare the average £11,000 a year (that’s nearly $20,000) with the average of $6,300 here.

So, dare I award this category, the cost of education between England and Australia compared, to Australia?

No! But I’m calling it a draw.

Conclusion.

Don’t be too afraid of the cost of schooling here in Australia, it’s not that bad. And you do have the choice, you can pretty well spent as much or as little as you want.

Related posts:

1. Cost of Living in Australia: Stamp Duty.
2. Ambulance Fees in Australia – State to State
3. School Holidays in Australia: What To Do?
4. Cost of Living Australia: Going to the Cinema.
5. The Pullenvale State School’s Bush Picnic

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Tagged as: Australian Government, Catholics, Cost Of Living Australia, Education In Australia, Living In Australia, Public Education, State Education, Voluntary Contributions