Private schools say more parents struggling to pay fees

FEE-CHARGING schools have noticed parents are facing increasing difficulties paying school fees since the economic downturn began, the Oireachtas Committee on Education heard yesterday.

Belvedere College principal Gerry Foley said 10 per cent of students at the Dublin school came from a lower socioeconomic background.

“Up to recently, we struggled to fill that 10 per cent,” he said. Problems in paying school fees were now coming from the “surprising area” of middle-income families where one or both parents had lost jobs, he said.

Mr Foley said Belvedere College did not offer a scholarship as such. Under its social integration scheme, it provided support to a selected number of students who were specifically chosen because of their financial circumstances, not because of their academic prowess.

Wesley College principal Christopher Woods said 25 per cent of his students were receiving support “in one form or another”.

The committee also heard that budget cutbacks were threatening the future viability of a number of secondary schools. The Joint Managerial Body (JMB), which represents managers of voluntary secondary schools, said the severity of the cutbacks affected both fee-charging and free schools and could force some out of existence.

Mr Woods said the budget cutbacks were costing Wesley College €500,000 in loss of grants and teaching supports.

JMB general secretary Ferdia Kelly said the removal of grants and the changes in teacher allocations in minority faith schools “will either mean a reduction in the quality of education offered, or an increase in fees paid by parents”.

Because of their dispersed populations, minority faith schools had historically been treated differently to Catholic schools. After free education was introduced, they were allowed to benefit from grants given in the free education sector while still charging fees.

However, the budget changes effectively removed these schools from the free education scheme, Mr Kelly said. He cited the removal of grants, including those for caretakers and secretaries, that are payable to schools in the free education scheme and the introduction of a higher pupil-teacher ratio for the purposes of allocating teachers.

Mr Kelly said fee-charging schools were important private employers in the local community and this was especially true in the 34 boarding schools around the country.

Fine Gael’s Brian Hayes said the budget cutbacks were an “outrageous attack” on minority faiths.