How much does it cost to send you child to school in New Zealand? – Follow up.
After writing a while back about the costs involved in funding your child’s school year, I watched a rather interesting piece last night on Campbell Live. (7pm TV3)
Marlborough Boys College have nearly doubled the “donation” that parents are asked to pay – from $110 last year – to $200 this year. The cause of this is apparently due to a $1.7m debts incurred, some of which was lost when the school decided to open an Overseas branch in China, offering New Zealand qualifications. The school board is apparently putting the problem down to having too many teachers. Hmmm. That’s a bit like saying the UK NHS has too many nurses.
(Why is it that Front line staff – the ones that actually produce the work – are the ones that get axed first? The mind Boggles).
It appears that the school also spent $250,000 on a computer network believing it would be funded by the Ministry Of Education – but didn’t follow the process properly and can’t get the funds back.
My thought on this is that its quite appalling to expect the parents of the students to fork out extra payments to cover what appears to be some appalling business decisions made by the school. There is just something quite awful about that: lets face it – no one is going to bail me out if my business decisions for the last year end up in a pickle.
On a positive note – there was also a small section about a group of Auckland Uni students who have set up a scheme to go into schools and teach the kids basic money management skills. They mentioned that 88% of high school students do not know how to read a bank statement. I wonder if the number for adults is much higher?
This is something that desperately needs to happen. Financial literacy in the UK and in NZ is appalling – and to be honest – it’s really not at all hard to learn the basics of opening bank statements, keeping track of your sending, and spending less than you earn.
The most head turning quote of the whole thing was from a young girl how said, “I find it harder to spend the money I earn, rather than the money my Mum gives me”.
Hmmm,I think that suggests maybe all these bailout packages may not have the effect they are intended to.
Related posts:
- How much does it cost to send you child to school in New Zealand?
- Watch those School “Donations” when you move to New Zealand.
- Would you sell your home to pay for school donations?
Comments
One Comment on How much does it cost to send you child to school in New Zealand? – Follow up.
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Hubby on
Mon, 27th Apr 2009 10:29 pm
As another quick follow up to this one – the DomPost today published some brief results from a study by the Council for Educational Research. This shows that the average secondary school charges a ‘voluntary donation’ of $1530 per year, with the average ‘donation’ to primary schools was $794.
Now of course some of this is for extra-cirrucular activities such as weekend trips, however some of it is for the essentials.
Don’t forget – it is a voluntary donation.
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