The salary you need to send your kids to the most expensive schools in South Africa

 ·20 Jan 2025

Those wanting to send their children to some of South Africa’s most prestigious and best-performing private schools will have to earn up to R2.8 million a year—or R234,000 per month—in 2025.

When parents invest in expensive private schools in South Africa, it seems reasonable to expect exceptional academic performance.

The high tuition fees should translate into a superior educational environment with smaller class sizes, highly qualified teachers, and access to advanced learning resources.

These elements create an optimal setting for academic success, justifying the financial investment.

Parents expect these institutions to provide a robust education that meets and exceeds national standards.

This expectation drives schools to maintain high academic performance, ensuring students are well-prepared for tertiary education and competitive job markets.

Considering this, BusinessTech looked at how much you would need to earn to send your child to some of the best-performing private schools in the country.

As of the end of 2024, over 2,325 independent schools were registered across South Africa.

This makes it incredibly difficult to ascertain which private schools are ultimately the best-performing in the country.

Because of this, we looked at the most expensive and well-known private schools in the country historically tracked by BusinssTech and which performed the best in their final matric exams for 2024.

The schools tracked are generally the schools that cost over R130,000 per annum in school fees.

Using these schools also provides an earning cap, which means any other private school is likely to be less expensive and, therefore, require a smaller salary.

Interestingly, following the 2024 matric results, the list of the top 10 best-performing private schools featured six co-ed schools, four all-girls schools, and not one all-boys school.

SAHETI was the top school in the country, reporting an average of 4.5 distinctions per candidate.

This is followed by Roedean and Crawford College Sandton, which averaged 4.42 and 4.27 distinctions per candidate, respectively.

The top five were rounded out by Somerset College, a co-ed school, and St Mary’s Waverly, an all-girls school, which both achieved 4.2 distinctions per candidate.

This last to the top 10 included King David Linksfield, Herschel Girls’ School, St Stithians Girls College, Helpmekaar Kollege, and Redhill School.

How much you need to earn

According to experts, assuming a parent or household hasn’t saved for schooling, it is advisable to allocate no more than 10-15% of your annual household income to education expenses.

This would be different in each household.

In 2025, there are at least nine schools now charging more than R350,000 a year for boarding and tuition.

Hilton College in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands retains its title as the most expensive school in the country.

Its annual fees (which only allow for boarding) are R420,729 for 2025, up 5.8% from last year.

Joining Hilton in the elite R350,000-plus category are Michaelhouse, St Andrew’s College in Makhanda, Roedean School for Girls, St John’s College, Kearsney College, Bishops College, St Mary’s, and St Alban’s College.

Fee increases for 2025 average 6.9% across the assessed schools, outpacing the inflation rate, which ended 2024 at just 2.9%.

For the purpose of this article, we looked at how much you’d have to earn to send your child to the top three best-performing all-boys, all-girls, and co-ed schools in South Africa.

Those who wish to send their child to these top-performing private schools would have to earn between R1 million and R2.8 million annually.

However, while this is the salary required for South Africa’s most expensive schools, Momentum data shows that the average private school fee in South Africa will reach R125,000 in 2025.

This works out to a required salary of R833,000 a year or R69,444 per month.

The table below shows the top-performing schools tracked by BusinesstechTech, their average distinctions per candidate for 2024 and how much you need to earn to enrol your child at the school.

SchoolAvg distinctionsTuition Annual salary required
(Per month)
All-boys
St John’s College3.20R220,828R1.47 million
(R122,700 pm)
St David’s Marist Inanda3.00R187,400R1.25 million
(R104,100 pm)
Michealhouse 2.60R392,000*R2.6 million
(R217,800 pm)
Hilton2.50R420,729*R2.8 million
(R233,700 pm)
All-girls
Roedean4.42R218,877R1.46 million
(R121,600 pm)
St Mary’s Waverly4.20R204,140R1.36 million
(R113,400 pm)
Herschel Girls’ School3.65R160,240R1.06 million
(R89,000 pm)
Co-ed
SAHETI4.50R179,625R1.20 million
(R99,800 pm)
Crawford College Sandton4.27R202,840R1.35 million
(R112,700 pm)
Somerset College4.20R163,300R1.09 million
(R90,700 pm)
*Michaelhouse and Hilton only offer boarding, which is why their fees are substantially higher than those of the rest of the schools listed.

Read: One of the rarest and most valuable South African coins just sold for over R40 million

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