Parents warned of school fees hike

PARENTS of children at North Down´s three prep schools have been warned they face paying out an extra £800 every year from this September.

Currently the prep departments of grammar schools get 30% of their funding from the government, which works out at around £800 per pupil every year.

The Department of Education plans to pull that money by September 1, arguing that public cash should not go to schools where the main entrance requirement is the ability to pay fees.

In order to make up the resulting shortfall in full, preps would have to bump up fees by £800 for every single child attending the school. If they don´t, their only other options would be to subsidise the prep with money meant for the grammar or cut costs by sacking staff, neither of which are particularly appealing.

Over the past couple of weeks, prep schools around the borou

It is understood that parents have reacted with anger, with many accusing Education Minister Caitriona Ruane of pulling the money to get at grammar schools.

A review of prep funding was first suggested in the Bain Report in 2006, but the results of a government study of the subject only came in last year. That study said that cutting prep cash would not save the Department of Education much money, but it should happen anyway for equality reasons.

One fear for the prep departments is that the hike in fees will cause a mass exodus of children, their parents no longer willing or able to meet the increased cost.

If this happens, says the department, then the ex-prep pupils can be easily taken in by those primary schools around Northern Ireland who currently have a lot of empty desks.

At the minute the department is carrying out an equality impact assessment on the cuts, though this is really little more than a formality before the plan can be rubber-stamped.