School fees run from $500 to nothing

By LIBBY MIDDLEBROOK and REBECCA WALSH

Parents of a child attending Epsom Girls Grammar are asked for a donation of $500 each year to help cover costs.

Across Auckland city, parents of Tamaki College students are not asked to pay anything.

This is the range of school donations sought by North Island state secondary schools.

A Weekend Herald survey of 111 schools from Taupo to Northland has found Epsom Girls Grammar and Auckland Grammar School charging parents the most.

The survey also revealed that 15 of the schools had increased their suggested donation to parents this year, one by as much as $80.

Other state schools had stopped asking for donations for the first time this year because their communities could not afford them.

Every New Zealander aged 5 to 19 is entitled to a free education at a state school, but schools are allowed to request a donation to help cover running expenses and extras such as transport for school trips.

Schools cannot make the donation a prerequisite for enrolment or attendance.

Most schools surveyed asked for a donation, school fees or activity fees of between $50 and $200.

Many offered discounts for early payments and to families with more than one child at the school.

Only four schools did not ask for donations, but many demanded compulsory payments from parents during the year to cover students' expenses.

Epsom Girls principal Margaret Bendall said that while the $500 donation might seem costly, it covered most student expenses, such as internet access and an identification card.

It also covered a $75 donation towards the cost of replacing the school's swimming pool.

"Donations are a tender area for schools like ours - nobody likes charging exorbitant rates.

"We've agonised over it for years and feel that it's the only way we cope."

She said the decile 10 school (the highest socio-economic rating for its catchment) received less money from the Government than a decile one school and needed to make up a deficit through parent donations.

Bay of Islands College is not requesting donations from parents for the first time this year.

Executive officer Doug McKenzie said only 50 per cent of parents paid the $45 donation to the school, which has about 500 students.

Government funding made up the shortfall.

"We're in a low socio-economic area and some paid and some didn't.

"We can't compel people to pay so it seemed a better thing to do to stop asking for donations," said Mr McKenzie.

Other principals of schools which increased their suggested donations this year blamed the cost of technology, inflation and the drop in Government financing following the abolition of bulk funding.

Rangitoto College principal Allan Peachey said the decile 10 school on Auckland's North Shore had increased the donation per student from $170 to $190 to compensate for a $400,000 drop after the abolition of bulk funding.

The school has about 2600 students.

"They [the Government] talk about school fees being voluntary and then say decile 10 schools represent wealthy communities whose parents can afford to pay.

"We have to walk a very fine line between that."

About 98 per cent of families paid the donation but that could not be put down to the school's decile rating as it included a number of poorer families, he said.

Rosehill College principal Bali Haque said the school was asking for $35 more this year because it had also lost money with the abolition of bulk funding.

But Education Minister Trevor Mallard said the financing of schools was now more "even-keeled" as some schools had been getting more than their fair share under bulk funding.

Education in New Zealand was well-financed by international standards and while school donations were not essential to the curriculum, they were something the community believed would enhance schools, he said.

"No matter how much money is given to schools there is always going to be more that schools can buy to help them enhance learning.

"They are always going to ask parents to support those extras," said Mr Mallard.

Tom Robson, chairman of the Secondary Principals' Association, said donations also forged valuable links between schools and their communities.

They were also a legitimate way for a school to raise vital money.

John Minto, national chairman of the Quality Public Education Coalition, said donations should be banned, with the Government covering the entire cost of running state secondary schools.

Costly donations at state-integrated schools should also be abolished, he said.

Integrated schools are the only state secondary educational institutions allowed to charge attendance dues, which pay for the upkeep of buildings not owned by the Government.

Attendance dues can cost parents more than $4000 a year for each student.

Meanwhile, private schools charge anything from $7000 to $10,600 a year in tuition fees. If the child is a boarder, the parents will pay another $4800 to $7400.