After an eight-year freeze, senior secondary school fees are set to rise by between 4 and 5 per cent from September. As a result, the government will collect an additional $37 million, an insignificant sum compared with its $48.68 billion education budget for 2005-06.
But it is the principle that matters - that parents should make a direct contribution towards the cost of educating their children, even though the government must remain responsible for the lion's share. The revised fees will constitute 15.8 per cent and 15.5 per cent of the respective costs of educating two groups of students - form four and five, and form six and seven - compared with the government policy of achieving an 18 per cent recovery rate.
For some families, any increase will not be affordable. They deserve our assistance as education is the key to advancement, especially for children from poor families. Already, 51 per cent of 200,000 senior secondary students benefit from fee waivers or remissions; they should remain protected from the higher fees.
But for families that have the means to contribute more, there is no reason for them to reject the modest increases, which amount to less than $1 more a day. Since 1997, recurrent public spending on education has increased by 63 per cent for secondary schools and 66 per cent for primary schools. It is time parents paid a bit more as well.
Going forward, the broader questions are: What should be the priorities for public spending on education? What role should private contributions play towards nurturing our next generation? How much more should parents pay towards the cost of their children's education?
Despite the generous increases in funding for primary and secondary schools in recent years, the distribution of the education budget is still skewed in favour of universities. In 2003-04, the average cost per student was: primary $25,300, secondary $36,400, post-secondary $59,970 and university $231,400.
