Categories: News

Survey estimates cost of educating children

&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" alignright size-full wp-image-1230" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;schoolnewsnz&period;fastrackdev&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;01&sol;SND11-wk4-Education&lowbar;costs&lowbar;-&lowbar;JohnVelegrinis&lowbar;300x224&period;jpg" alt&equals;"SND11-wk4-Education costs - JohnVelegrinis 300x224" style&equals;"margin&colon; 5px&semi; float&colon; right&semi;" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"224" &sol;>New Zealand families could spend up to &dollar;630&comma;000 on their children&&num;8217&semi;s education&comma; according to the ASG Planning for Education Index released on Friday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p> <&excl;--more--> <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The survey found that for a child born in 2015&comma; 13 years of private school education in New Zealand is estimated to cost &dollar;NZ323&comma;814&period; State integrated schooling could cost up to &dollar;107&comma;962&comma; almost a third of the cost of private education&comma; with state education costing up to &dollar;37&comma;676&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>ASG Education Programmes CEO John Velegrinis said that&comma; regardless of whether choosing to educate a child in a state&comma; state integrated or private school&comma; parents need to start planning financially for education from the time their child is born&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Education is one of life&&num;8217&semi;s major investments – in some instances it&&num;8217&semi;s an even bigger investment than the family home&period; What we&&num;8217&semi;re advocating is that by putting a little bit away&comma; parents are more likely to achieve the goals and aspirations they have for their children&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>More than 1000 ASG members responded to the independently peer reviewed survey&comma; which included such variables as school fees&comma; costs of transport&comma; uniforms&comma; computers&comma; school excursions and sporting trips&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>State education in New Zealand is more than 40 per cent cheaper than in Australia&comma; costing families about &dollar;37&comma;676 for a 13-year education&comma; in comparison to &dollar;67&comma;894 across the Tasman&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Sarah Kennett decided to plan and prepare early for her children&&num;8217&semi;s education&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;When my three children were really young&comma; books were a real focus and we read to them daily&period; They were reading books themselves and that was the start of them wanting to know what was going on in the world and valuing education&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We live on a farm 40 minutes out of town&comma; which can get a bit isolating&comma; so I think having a good education gives them a bit more scope about the world of agriculture beyond the farm gates&comma;&&num;8221&semi; she said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Sarah&&num;8217&semi;s daughter Lana studied agriculture at Lincoln University and recently completed her post-graduate diploma in marketing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;I put my scholarship money towards my accommodation costs&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s so much easier living on campus&comma; because classes and the library are right there&comma; and you can socialise and collaborate with your peers&comma; Lana said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Because mum and dad made that investment so many years ago&comma; it really shows that they did care about our future&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Velegrinis said school fees are only one component of total education costs&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;There is a myriad of other costs involved including transport&comma; uniforms and school books&comma; excursions – which can create financial headaches if they&&num;8217&semi;re not planned for&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>ASG&&num;8217&semi;s online Education Costs Calculators available at www&period;asg&period;co&period;nz&sol;calculator enables families to estimate the cost of their child&&num;8217&semi;s education&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For comprehensive summary sheets detailing the cost of education in metropolitan New Zealand visit&colon; <strong><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;asg&period;co&period;nz&sol;edcosts" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">www&period;asg&period;co&period;nz&sol;edcosts<&sol;a><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ast; Participants in the ASG Planning for Education Index were asked to provide information on what type of school their children attended – state&comma; state integrated or private&period; The survey took place in October 2014&period; A researcher and independent statistician reviewed the data and calculated the future cost of education using the New Zealand Department of Statistics approved CPI indexes&period;<&sol;p><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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