Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Parents struggling to afford education

By Anna Whyte & Patrice Dougan
Bay of Plenty Times·
23 Oct, 2016 01:00 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Merivale School principal Jan Tinetti is not surprised parents are struggling to afford their child's education. Photo/file

Merivale School principal Jan Tinetti is not surprised parents are struggling to afford their child's education. Photo/file

Parents are increasingly feeling financially pressured when it comes to their children's education, a new survey has revealed.

Bay principals have noticed this growing trend of education unaffordability and were as frustrated as parents.

In a survey of 850 parents nationwide 56 per cent admitted they could not afford after-school tuition if needed.

The 2016 Parents Report Card, by education savings provider ASG, also found 85 per cent wished they had more money to spend on their child's education, and 26 per cent felt they needed to work two jobs per household to afford a successful education.

Merivale School Principal Jan Tinetti said she was not surprised at the results, which she thought was a result of school budgets.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Unfortunately what that means is we're putting a lot more pressure back on parents," she said.

"Here, we're not able to offer a lot of things we used to be able to."

She said measures such as community fundraising and keeping uniform costs down had to be put in place to ease the financial pressure put on parents.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Mrs Tinetti said the school had to find ways to help keep costs down for parents, but she understood when other schools had to ask parents for financial help.

Greenpark School principal Graeme Lind said as students moved through schooling affordability became less and less.

"I think this comes back to the fact we have poverty in New Zealand in educational terms which the Government isn't acknowledging," Mr Lind said.

At his school he noticed they were providing an increased number of school lunches to students - which they provided intermittently.

"This tells me families are stretched with weekly budgets. If we're seeing this then parents certainly aren't going to be able to afford extras like extra tutoring."

If students could not access the schooling they needed then it would "handicap their potential" Mr Lind said.

"The compulsory sector of schooling should be by and large free and it certainly isn't."

Brookfield School principal Robert Hyndman said his school was very careful not to put too many financial demands on parents, as it was a difficult time for many families.

"It would be nice to do extra things but we have to live within our families' budgets, we can't put extra costs on parents because that causes too much stress for them."

He said some extras, like school camp, would never happen if not for support from the Lion Foundation, whose contributions allowed all families to participate.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Education Ministry deputy secretary for early learning and student achievement Karl Le-Quesne said funding for schools had increased every year since 2008.

"The vast majority of our schools deliver our world-beating curriculum within their budgets and do it well," he said.

"Schools are funded to deliver the curriculum and schools are not allowed to charge for the cost of either teaching or learning, including the materials used in the provision of the curriculum. They may, where appropriate, ask parents to meet the costs of materials where there is a clear take home component. But a student or their family is never obliged to buy anything produced at school."

He said many of the costs in the ASG report, "Go beyond the core costs required by parents to participate in a state education".

IT'S NOT EASY

Te Puke mother Tracey Wallace-Hutchins, who started the lunchbox challenge this year where parents made an extra lunch for a child in need, could empathise with parents struggling to afford extra tuition for their children.

She had found it difficult affording lessons for her daughter who had dyslexia during her high school years.

"I couldn't afford it at the time, we managed but she also had to work kiwifruit jobs to help pay for her extra tuition."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Bay of Plenty Times

'Plague of hoons': Bikers 'tearing up' parks frustrate neighbours

13 Jul 07:03 PM
Bay of Plenty TimesUpdated

Making NZ top destination for international students

13 Jul 06:55 PM
Premium
Opinion

Opinion: Why Mary Meeker's latest AI insights can't be ignored

13 Jul 05:00 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

'Plague of hoons': Bikers 'tearing up' parks frustrate neighbours

'Plague of hoons': Bikers 'tearing up' parks frustrate neighbours

13 Jul 07:03 PM

'Off they go waving their finger in the air.'

Making NZ top destination for international students

Making NZ top destination for international students

13 Jul 06:55 PM
Premium
Opinion: Why Mary Meeker's latest AI insights can't be ignored

Opinion: Why Mary Meeker's latest AI insights can't be ignored

13 Jul 05:00 PM
Sam Ruthe breaks NZ records in LA

Sam Ruthe breaks NZ records in LA

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP