{"id":773737,"date":"2024-05-30T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=773737"},"modified":"2024-05-30T14:30:01","modified_gmt":"2024-05-30T12:30:01","slug":"south-african-private-school-price-shocker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/773737\/south-african-private-school-price-shocker\/","title":{"rendered":"South African private school price shocker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa\u2019s top private schools have significantly increased their fees over the last ten years, with four bumping up fees by over 100%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Private education is a vibrant sector in South Africa as the government fails to provide quality education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although there are still many world-class public schools, like Ho\u00ebrskool Waterkloof, Afrikaanse Ho\u00ebr, Paul Roos Gym, and King Edward VII High School, they are exceptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most public schools provide poor education and are hampered by a lack of funds, mismanagement, and other problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problems in the public school sector have resulted in a booming private school sector to provide kids with a good education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Companies like ADvTECH and Curro have built excellent businesses providing high-quality private education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, sending kids to a private school is beyond the reach of most South African households.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although independent schools may receive state subsidies if they satisfy certain criteria, sending children to a private school remains a luxury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the challenges for South African private schools is that providing a world-class education costs a lot of money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To ensure a school is sustainable, it has to generate enough revenue from school fees to ensure it can attract the best teachers and provide excellent facilities and after-school activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good example of the escalating costs is load-shedding. Private schools are on their own to ensure their activities are not interrupted by power cuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same goes for water, security, transport, and many other things these schools are responsible for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is that private schools had to significantly increase their fees to ensure they remained financially sustainable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The higher private school fees can result in challenges as many households struggle to make ends meet because of high-interest rates, inflation, and a sluggish economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curro highlighted a concerning trend across its schools, with enrollment numbers showing that some parents are struggling due to the higher cost of living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its latest results showed that its registered learners in February 2024 remained virtually unchanged from a year earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It noted that high schools are growing as expected, but the challenging impact of higher interest rates on constrained consumers means that enrolments in the earlier grades are struggling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The high interest rates and higher food and fuel costs reduced enrolments of learners in the youngest grades of primary schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa’s most expensive private schools<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Bishops College<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

South Africa\u2019s top private schools were no exception regarding financial responsibilities, and all of them increased fees in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2024, fees for boarding schools and day schoolers increased at an average of 7.3% across the 40 most expensive schools in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are now at least six private schools charging more than R350,000 a year for boarding and tuition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hilton College in KwaZulu-Natal is the most expensive school in the country, with annual fees of R397,660. It raises fees by 7.5% from last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MichaelHouse, St Andrew\u2019s College in Makhanda, Roedean School for Girls, St John\u2019s College, and Kearsney College all charge more than R350,000 annually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at a longer period shows the big price increases South Africa\u2019s top private schools had to implement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The top schools hiked prices between 70% and 105% between 2014 and 2024. Four schools increased rates by over 100%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diocesan School for Girls has the biggest fee increase at 105%, followed by Bishops College, Kingswood College, and St Anne\u2019s Diocesan College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The table below shows the fee increases for South Africa\u2019s top private schools over the last decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

School<\/strong><\/td>Location<\/strong><\/td>2014 fees<\/strong><\/td>2024 fees<\/strong><\/td>%<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Diocesan School for Girls<\/td>Makhanda, EC<\/td>R157 590<\/td>R323 040<\/td>105%<\/td><\/tr>
Bishops College<\/td>Cape Town, WC<\/td>R168 140<\/td>R341 430<\/td>103%<\/td><\/tr>
Kingswood College<\/td>Makhanda, EC<\/td>R158 355<\/td>R318 210<\/td>101%<\/td><\/tr>
St Anne\u2019s Diocesan College<\/td>Hilton, KZN<\/td>R146 200<\/td>R293 340<\/td>101%<\/td><\/tr>
St Andrew\u2019s College<\/td>Makhanda, EC<\/td>R182 700<\/td>R363 879<\/td>99%<\/td><\/tr>
Roedean School for Girls<\/td>Johannesburg, GP<\/td>R181 140<\/td>R360 087<\/td>99%<\/td><\/tr>
St John\u2019s College<\/td>Johannesburg, GP<\/td>R178 523<\/td>R352 612<\/td>98%<\/td><\/tr>
St Mary\u2019s<\/td>Johannesburg, GP<\/td>R173 700<\/td>R335 470<\/td>93%<\/td><\/tr>
Kearsney College<\/td>Botha\u2019s Hill, KZN<\/td>R181 350<\/td>R350 130<\/td>93%<\/td><\/tr>
MichaelHouse<\/td>Balgowan, KZN<\/td>R192 000<\/td>R368 000<\/td>92%<\/td><\/tr>
Hilton<\/td>Hilton, KZN<\/td>R209 000<\/td>R397 660<\/td>90%<\/td><\/tr>
Bridge House<\/td>Franschhoek, WC<\/td>R149 490<\/td>R281 750<\/td>88%<\/td><\/tr>
Treverton College<\/td>Mooi River, KZN<\/td>R142 400<\/td>R263 996<\/td>85%<\/td><\/tr>
St Andrew\u2019s School for Girls, Senderwood<\/td>Johannesburg, GP<\/td>R174 860<\/td>R320 680<\/td>83%<\/td><\/tr>
St Alban\u2019s College<\/td>Pretoria, GP<\/td>R181 000<\/td>R328 920<\/td>82%<\/td><\/tr>
St Stithians College<\/td>Johannesburg, GP<\/td>R166 691<\/td>R302 470<\/td>81%<\/td><\/tr>
Wykeham Collegaite<\/td>Pietermaritzberg, KZN<\/td>R154 820<\/td>R268 600<\/td>73%<\/td><\/tr>
Herschel Girls School<\/td>Cape Town, WC<\/td>R157 560<\/td>R271 780<\/td>72%<\/td><\/tr>
Somerset College<\/td>Stellenbosch, WC<\/td>R167 736<\/td>R285 500<\/td>70%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Read: The jobs that pay private school-level salaries in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of South Africa\u2019s private schools increased its price by over R200,000 per year over the last decade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":752521,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[19931,9381,19932,9840,19933,19930,8919,19934],"class_list":["post-773737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-afrikaanse-hoer","tag-hilton-college","tag-hoerskool-waterkloof","tag-michaelhouse","tag-paul-roos-gym","tag-private-school-fees","tag-private-schools","tag-st-andrews-college"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773737","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=773737"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":773945,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773737\/revisions\/773945"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}