What it costs to educate a child from Grade 1 to Matric in SA
Having children is not cheap…
Many South Africans are struggling to make ends meet due to the high cost of living.
On top of that, the rising cost of education is also seeing many parents pinching their pennies in an attempt to meet their own and their children's needs.
According to BusinessTech, many parents have now started considering alternatives to traditional schooling, including online and homeschooling, to hopefully reduce the cost of education.
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High education fees are also not predicted to get any better, as revealed by data shared by Old Mutual in 2023.
Old Mutual warned that long-term education is outstripping salary inflation and outpaces the Consumer Price Index (CPI) by between 2.5% and 3% annually.
"If your child starts from Grade 1 in 2023, you can expect to pay on average between R651,313 and R1,901,549, for public or private education, respectively, over their school career," said Marius Pretorius, head of marketing: retail savings and income solutions at Old Mutual Personal Finance.
"The truth of the matter is that education is expensive. If you've saved any money and your child is entering a public primary or high school in 2023, you can expect to pay on average about R24,408 and R36,072 this year, while a private primary school and private high school will set you back R71,496 and R105,084, respectively.
"When it comes to university education, parents can expect to pay R55,900 in 2023, on average," he said.
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According to 2024 data shared by IOL, parents can expect to pay between R24,408 and R36,072 a year for a child entering a public primary or high school.
For private primary and private high schools, it could cost anywhere between R71,496 and R105,084 per annum.
This means parents can pay between R650,000 and around R2-million for public or private education, respectively, over a child's entire schooling journey.
Below is a breakdown of the expected cost of one year's education over the next 15 years:
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IMAGE: AFP