According the latest Planning for Education Index, released by the Australian Scholarships Group (ASG) Australia has the second highest education cost in the world.
Meanwhile, the Australian Retail Association labels skyrocketing back-to-school costs “horrific” as parents struggle to keep up with the price of fees, text books and uniforms.
ARA executive director Russell Zimmerman said the rising costs of getting children ready for school — just after Christmas — was increasingly putting pressure on parents.
“These days, you can pay anywhere from $15 – $20 for a really cheap pair of school shoes, through to $130 – $140 for a reasonably decent pair,” he told the Herald Sun.
“Then you have to think about uniforms for school, and they are not cheap, and quite often, these uniforms can only be bought via the school uniform shops. Then you have the issue around text books; Australia has the second highest cost in the world for text books.”
Mr Zimmerman said excursion and school fee-type costs, often called voluntary financial contributions, also awaited parents once the school year started.
“It’s certainly not cheap to outfit a child to go back to school,” he concluded.
According to the ASG research, 93 per cent of Australian parents believe it is important to save for education. However, other major life events such as buying a house (94 per cent) retirement (93 per cent) and having children (87 per cent) are perceived to be just as, or more, important.
While there is strong intent among parents to save for education, the reality is quite different. ASG’s survey of parental attitudes towards saving for education revealed that only 36 per cent save for their children’s primary school education, 37 per cent for secondary education and falls to 34 per cent for post-secondary education.
ASG ducation as a financial priority in the same way that focus is given to other major life events such as saving for retirement.
The Repositioning Education as a Major Life Event white paper released by ASG this week, surveyed 1,000 Australian parents to understand their behaviours and attitudes towards education in comparison to other life events such as saving for a holiday, purchasing property, investing in retirement savings, getting married or having children.
“Since ASG was established more than 40 years ago, we’ve consistently seen the cost of living, property prices and cost of education rise; at the same time, wage and salary growth has struggled to keep pace. This has increased the financial burden on Australians and their financial priorities have shifted as a result,” said ASG CEO John Velegrinis.
“In addition, as family financial commitments continue to grow, we’re seeing little support from government initiatives and policies that will help to ease these pressures; making saving for education more important than ever for Australian parents.”
“The results highlight the gap between this perceived importance of saving for education and how families are actually planning, prioritising and saving for future education costs. While an attitude change is required from parents, Australians are also in need of greater financial support and resources from the government to assist them in supporting their child’s learning journey,” added Velegrinis urging the Australian federal government to recognise education as a major life event in a manner similar to the way retirement is viewed and treated in policies and government outcomes.
“In this way we believe that there is an opportunity to share the financial burden and responsibility between all stakeholders—parents and government.”
“Education policies have been a topic of conversation for many years, however, few have focused on preparing and supporting individuals and families to meet the growing challenges relating to the cost of education. With 85 per cent of parents agreeing that the government should help them pay for their children’s education, more can be done to incentivise savings and benefits,” he explained.
