Education

Parents building up debt to send children to school, survey finds

Survey reveals mounting primary and secondary school costs

Class of primary school kids studying in a classroom

Mon Jul 10 2017 - 08:00

Parents are building up debt to cover the cost of sending their children to school a survey published today has found.

The survey found that more than half of them (52 per cent) found the cost of covering primary school a financial burden while 68 per cent found it a burden when sending their children to secondary school.

The Cost of Education in Ireland survey published by Zurich Life shows that primary school education costs an average of €766 per year while secondary school education is averaging €1,628 per year.

The study found 18 per cent of parents of primary school children were getting into debt to cover education costs, increasing to 34 per cent in relation to parents of secondary school children.

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The main costs at primary school level included extra curricular activities (€165), lunch (€110), school trips (€87), books (€80) and uniforms (€124).

In secondary school, annual costs included grinds (€310), school trips (€201), books (€200) and lunch (€183).

Most primary (86 per cent) and secondary (74 per cent) school children bring a packed lunch with them.

The Cost of Education study was conducted by iReach Market Research on behalf of Zurich Life Assurance. It included a nationally representative sample of 600 respondents and was undertaken between June 12th and 21st, 2017.

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