New research just released has estimated the cost of a child’s education in Ireland at €70,000 from primary through to the end of third level. A study carried out by Bank of Ireland Life and website www.schooldays.ie has found that nearly half of all parents felt that this coming school year was going to be one of the most difficult ever and two thirds think that they were going to have to seek financial assistance from their family to help cover the costs.
The survey pointed out that now more than ever parents need to start saving and planning for their children’s future educational costs which could reach €70,000 by the time children finished their education. According to the survey 78 per cent of parents said that they wished they had started saving earlier, while 75 per cent felt that the saving should start from the child’s birth, preferably using monthly child benefit of €150 if possible.
Some of the main findings of the survey were that 30 per cent of parents currently save some or all of their child benefit payment, with 41 per cent of those topping that up with an additional savings plan. If child benefit was to be means tested 78 per cent of those who took the survey said that it would leave them in a difficult financial position.
Overall, the parents who took part in the survey said that they were more than happy with public primary education in the country, with 83 per cent saying it was as good as private primary education. However when it came to secondary education that number dropped to 63 per cent.
When it comes to third level education, only 39 per cent of those who took the survey said that they had started a specific savings plan for their children’s third level education, with a massive 71 per cent saying they would have to borrow to pay for third level education and this rose to 88 per cent if fees were reintroduced.
The fact that text books change all the time was a big issue for the parents who took part in the study, with 97 per cent saying that they believed that text books should only be changed every five years, which would help them to save money by passing the books down to younger siblings. The same percentage said they also thought that transition year should be optional as it puts an additional expense on already stretched parents. Three quarters of parents also believed that school uniforms are too expensive, with one third saying that they would be buying a larger size uniform than needed to save money in the future this year. The survey broke down the cost of a child’s education in primary, secondary and third level, with primary costing €13,528, secondary €14,112 and third level by far the biggest cost, coming in at €41,851.
