With some school fees set to rise by more than twice the inflation rate, a growing number of middle-class parents will not be able to afford the costs of education in 2020.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the Sunday Times<\/a><\/strong>, governing body representatives said that fee exemptions and nonpayment cost hundreds of schools a large chunk of their income last year, with the situation expected to worsen in 2020.<\/p>\n A student may qualify for a fee exemption if the fees are more than 10% of both parents\u2019 combined annual salary.<\/p>\n Chief executive at the Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools<\/span>, Paul Colditz said two-thirds of its 2,033 member schools that charged fees are losing 22% of income on average, either through fee exemptions or nonpayment.<\/p>\n \u201cA larger percentage of middle-class families who normally would not have qualified for an exemption now do qualify either because the wife or husband has lost their job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n However, he said that the increase in school fees is understandable as the government was not fully covering the cost of fee exemptions.<\/p>\n “We\u2019ve had fee exemptions of R1 million being granted and the school gets R30,000 in compensation.”<\/p>\n Goolam Ballim, chief economist at Standard Bank, said that a preliminary analysis of household finances showed a rise in defaulting parents from private and public schools.<\/p>\n Lebogang Montjane, executive director of the 844-member Independent Schools Association of Southern Africa (Isasa), indicated that this has led to a clear decline in the number of students attending schools with higher fees.<\/p>\n “Between 2017 and 2019, the number of pupils attending Isasa member schools that charged fees ranging from R20,000 to more than R100,000 dropped from 107,064 to 104,585.”<\/p>\n Massive debt problem<\/strong><\/p>\n Middle-class South Africans are also struggling to make other payments, and the lack of end-of-year bonuses and wage stagnation means that many people are borrowing to pay for necessities such as food and transport.<\/p>\n Recent data<\/a> <\/strong>from the National Credit Regulator (NCR) shows that \u00a084% of those who earn R15,000 a month or more have some form of debt. The average middle-income salary is R20,000.<\/p>\n