{"id":284850,"date":"2018-11-19T08:03:32","date_gmt":"2018-11-19T06:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=284850"},"modified":"2018-11-19T08:03:32","modified_gmt":"2018-11-19T06:03:32","slug":"parents-pulling-kids-from-private-schools-because-of-rising-fees-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/284850\/parents-pulling-kids-from-private-schools-because-of-rising-fees-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Parents pulling kids from private schools because of rising fees: report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa&#8217;s private and public schools have set their fees for 2019.<\/p>\n<p>According to a report by the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeslive.co.za\/sunday-times\/news\/2018-11-18-schools--lift-aid-budgets--as-fees-exceed--inflation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sunday Times<\/a><\/strong> the increases are set for well above inflation, with schools also expecting\u00a0a rise in applications for fee exemptions from cash-strapped parents.<\/p>\n<p>A survey of twenty schools taken by the paper\u00a0showed increases at state schools averaged 8.2% and hikes at private schools were on average 7.8% &#8211; significantly higher than the current 4.9% inflation rate.<\/p>\n<p>Commenting on the increases, economist Azar Jammine, said that private schools are becoming the ambit of the corporate elite and that\u00a0more people are no longer finding it affordable.<\/p>\n<p>He added that many ordinary professionals are now struggling to keep pace with some of the private school fees, which is expected to lead to an increase in admissions to\u00a0former Model C schools.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fee exemptions\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While higher-income parents are feeling the pinch, a record number of parents are expected to apply for fee exemptions next year.<\/p>\n<p>According to the survey, Parktown High School for Girls in Johannesburg &#8211; which\u00a0 was awarded R5.8 million in fee exemptions this year &#8211; has earmarked R5.9 million for next year to assist 15% to 20% of the total pupil population.<\/p>\n<p>Other schools also indicated that there were a growing number of parents who simply could not afford to pay for school fees.<\/p>\n<p>Headmaster of Ho\u00ebrskool Pietersburg, Willie Schoeman, said that parents of 93 pupils at his school still owed R1.8 million in fees for this year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The number of people applying for school fee exemptions will grow,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We try and push battling parents to pay something, even if it\u2019s R200 a month&#8221;.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/284688\/major-changes-on-the-cards-for-gauteng-schools\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Major changes on the cards for Gauteng schools<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa&#8217;s private and public schools have set their fees for 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":77459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-284850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284850"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":284932,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284850\/revisions\/284932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}