Cost of Education Increases in Melbourne

The Age, 24 April 2009

Data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics has suggested that the cost of education has grown more rapidly in Melbourne in 2009 than in other Australian city.

According to Consumer Price Index data for the March 2009 quarter, the cost of secondary education rose by an average of 8.7 per cent in Melbourne from March 2008 to March 2009. By comparison, the Australian capital city average was 7.6 per cent.

The average cost of pre-school and primary school education increased for Australian consumers by 4.3 per cent in 2009 while tertiary education increased by 3.2 per cent. Overall, the cost of education in Australia increased by five per cent.

The Chief Executive of AISV, Ms Michelle Green, indicated that 2009 fee increases in non-government schools were largely caused by significant increases in staffing costs, following the Victorian Government’s agreement with the Australian Education Union in 2008 to increase government schoolteacher salaries.

Ms Green indicated that compliance costs associated with increasingly complex regulation of schools also had an impact on non-government school fees. The President of the Australian Secondary Principals’ Association, Mr Andrew Blair, argued that the charges levied by government schools on parents were increasing because of inadequate government funding for schools.

 

 

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