Industry News
Private schooling is 'worth the investment'
Posted on 29th February 2008
Despite rapidly rising fees, independent schools are still worth the money, according to an article in the Economist.
Fees at private day schools have more than doubled over the last two decades, rising at a rate of six per cent every year since 2000.
The magazine has calculated that at this rate, a four-year-old beginning an independent school career this September will have racked up total costs of £170,000 for their parents by the time they leave at 18.
Despite these mammoth costs, the benefits of private schooling are also significant.
Around a third of all MPs, half the UK's most renowned journalists and 70 per cent of its top barristers were educated privately, as were almost half of all undergraduates at Oxford and Cambridge.
Researchers at the Centre for the Economics of Education found those who left independent schools in the 1980s and 1990s are now likely to be earning around 35 per cent more over their lifetime than former state school pupils, about half of which can be attributed specifically to education.
They calculated that gives parents an average seven per cent return on their investment in fees.
Private schools also tend to get excellent exam results and hire better-quality teachers, the newspaper said.
With over 100,000 families unable to find their child a place at their preferred state school last year, it is likely that increasing numbers of parents will be turning to the guaranteed investment of the private sector.