smurtaza

Hi,

Back in UK children below 16 years can attend public schools free of cost/fees.

Why schools in Australia charge fees?This is the fact I noticed after immigration that schools are very expensive and they charge fees...

Please cooment

Thanks

Dazza49

Hi,
Sorry but public schools in Australia are equivalent to private schools in uk where school fees apply. State schools in australia are equivalent to public schools in uk where no school fees apply.Public school fees here varies from school to school and area etc but is still alot cheaper than enroling your children in private school in the uk.It gets alot more expensive (but still reasonable) when your child reaches high school age. Our daughter starts public school here after the school hols and it is alot more affordable than uk(which we'd never be able to afford in the uk) and in our opinion a must as the experience we've had of State schools in oz is not good.Having to enrol our daughter in public school has been of the utmost importance.
I have numerous friends who have all removed their children from State Schools and now attend Public schools in Oz.

Allyson

Jerseygirl

Private schools in the UK are also known as public schools...they are fee paying.

Dazza49

Accept my apologies for my ignorance but not from where i'm from

Allyson

UK-2-OZ

Government School is equivalent to our council schools
Independant - is equivalent to our private schools

Even with Government schools you do have to pay for books, stationery, etc, You then have your fees they can vary from $80 pa - $1000 pa even more with some schools. However, some of these are classed as voluntary contributions and although they don't make a point of telling you this it is illegal for them to force you to pay.

rabsody

JG's right as I understand it.

Public school in UK = private/indepedent school Aus (fee paying)
Private school UK = state school Aus (paid via taxes)

Although I realise there are different terms all over the place to confuse the matter so it may be diff in your neck of the woods.

Out of interest, what did you find wrong with the state schools? I am interested as my eldest daughter goes to high school next year and I am bit concerned about sending her state but can't really afford the $15k pa fees for private.

Pollyana

Because this is Australia, not the UK, and things are run differently here.

The Bloke

Taxes plus incidentals that have to be paid ie books, uniforms, school excursion fees etc. Not to mention extra contributions from fetes, spelling B's, raffles etc, mostly paid for by parents.



It's only Smurtaza, that's all!.

rabsody

Yes indeed - the constant demands for $ can get a little wearing. I have heard it's even worse in high school!

Dazza49

Hi,
I can only speak for myself and some friends of mine, but I have found that the State school my daughter went to was very underfunded and the lack of communication, her teachers attitude was appauling, they had no idea of how to teach or lead by example.My daughter was in a mixed class of year1 and year2 with a total in excess of 60 pupilsas you can imagine it was a disaster.I spoke to the teacher several times but i might of well been speaking to a brick wall. The quality of all my daughters education suffered and I saw a dramatic decline in the time she was at this school, so we had to bite the bullet and place her in a public school.Its not going to be easy financially and sacrifices will have to be made but I personally think these sacrifices are a must, for us anyway.

Allyson

spartacus

Public schools (private) aren't free in the UK. State schools are free (at the point of delivery).

Private schools aren't free in Oz, they're fee paying. State schools aren't free in Oz either, consumables are charged (text books, pencils, work books etc), in my experience about $200 per year per child.

Hope this clarifies.

Vash the Stampede

Because unlike certain countries I could mention, Australian society isn't built on a "hand-outs" culture, under which people are encouraged to rely on the government for everything, and spend most of their time blagging vast sums of taxpayers' money for no good reason.

They are not "very expensive"; Australia's public schools are dirt cheap:
Source.

Vash the Stampede

State schools in Australia are known as "public schools". "State" and "public" = same entity. Private schools in Australia are known as "private schools", not "public schools".

So you are not moving your child from a state school to a public school; you are moving your child from a public school to a private school.

Swerv-o

No, Jerseygirl is right - some of the upper echelon UK private schools are also referred to as Public Schools - Like Eton, Harrow, Gordonstone etc.


S

rabsody

Oh come on, I agree UK has a welfare/hand out culture but I still think it's wrong for parents to constantly be hit up for contributions by the school like they are here. Library fund, "voluntary" contributions, P&C fund, buildings fund, not forgetting uniforms (which at most schools you have to buy their branded overpriced stuff) and the cost of all the consumables (tissues, reams of paper as well as pens, pencils etc).

Virtually every single thing kids use while they are at school, including the use of the bulidings so it seems, comes out of the parents pockets.

Surely we pay taxes to ensure education for all? Personally I would rather pay an extra 1% tax so that a decent education was provided across the board than the current two tier, user pays system.