At about €100,000 per child, education is one of the biggest expenses faced by hard-pressed parents. And that's before they fork out for hair and make-up, writes Kate Holmquist
THE COST OF educating one child through early education, then on to primary and beyond to a third-level degree probably exceeds €100,000, according to the Bank of Ireland.
Laura Erskine, public relations manager for Bank of Ireland and New Ireland Assurance, which commissioned research into the expense of educating a child, hasn't children yet herself, but hopes to one day. "How could you possibly save that much?" she asks.
If the child goes to fee-paying secondary school, requires after-school care and takes extra-curricular activities the cost could easily rise to €130,000 and even €160,000, she adds.
No wonder 98 per cent of parents find back- to-school time to be "expensive", according to the survey. Families will spend €376 per child on average this month, and 89 per cent of parents believe that the monthly Children's Allowance of €166 per child is insufficient.
Three out of four parents want the State to give the Back-to-School Allowance, currently means-tested, to all parents. And two-thirds of parents need the Children's Allowance to cover monthly expenses and so cannot save it to cover school costs.
Officially, the bank this week estimated the cost of educating a child through primary, secondary and third level at €61, 206 for the most basic expenses, but experienced parents know better. Not only is €100,000 per child the probable figure, but that still doesn't include the early childhood education (creche) fees, after- school clubs and extra-curricular activities that many parents regard as essential.
The figure of €61,206 on average was arrived at after 500 parents, mostly mothers, responded voluntarily to a detailed questionnaire over a period of three weeks earlier this summer on the schooldays.ie website. The categories included were books, uniforms, lunch, fees and voluntary contributions, transport and third-level accommodation.
Not included were things like after-school care. Average after-school costs are €118 per week per child, based on a straw poll of eight after-school clubs in July 2008 conducted by the Bank of Ireland. Over eight years of primary school, that amounts to at least €42,000 - and that's not including the summer camps.
Pre-school care is even more expensive. The National Children's Nurseries Association Survey 2008 found that parents face an average cost of €174 per week for a full-time spot in a private creche. In Dublin, that can be closer to €250 per week.
Food is definitely a necessity, and lunches alone cost €610.50 per year in primary, €1,152 in secondary and €1,071 at third-level, the survey found.
"The Early Childhood Supplement of €1,100 paid to parents every year for children under the age of six is not enough," says Erskine.
Anne Marie Wade, of www.schooldays.ie, lives in Blackrock, Co Dublin and agrees that the full cost of educating a child was not reckoned into the survey.
"The figure we arrived at is not the full cost, but what to some is a necessity is, to others, a luxury," she says.
In the coming weeks the big cost for parents is going to be school books and uniforms. One of the parents' greatest complaints was about the cost of school books - estimated in the survey as costing annually €123.44 in primary school, €169.31 in secondary school and €504 per year at third level. But Greene's Bookshop in Dublin estimated this week that, in secondary school, €300-€400 was the actual figure because the curriculum changes so often that second-hand books may not be relevant.
Primary school parents have complained that workbooks in which children write, rather than using copy books as in the days of old, have also made it harder to pass books down.
At Uniformity, a school uniforms outfitters in Dun Laoghaire, business has been slower than in years past, even though prices haven't risen in three years, says proprietor Paul Flood. This may be because families have taken late holidays, due to the disappointing weather, or it could be a sign of the times.
Hand-me-downs and second-hands can help, but in some schools kitting a child out in a brand new school uniform will cost €700 with just one skirt or pair of trousers, one jumper, three shirts, one pair of school shoes, a tracksuit, a coat and runners. A crested jumper can cost €75, and shoes easily €100 per pair. And that's before parents have paid for the hair and make-up. The more you consider it, the more €60,000 for an education seems a drop in the ocean.