How much does a school year cost for an elementary student?For many parents, beyond the expense implicit in the return to school, knowing what they spend together during the academic period will be difficult to compute.
The Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU) has prepared a study on the annual cost of a school year for an elementary student, both in public and concerted schools. In a public one the annual cost, including materials, dining room, books, route ..., amounts to 2,179 euros, while a concerted one costs 3,675 euros, 69% more. To do this, experts from the organization visited 205 schools in 18 cities anonymously (during the month of May), presenting themselves as parents of an alleged primary school student. Of the sample, 160 schools were arranged (lay and religious) and 45 public. The objective was to find out how the schools agreed on the prices to be paid for fees, donations, uniforms, complementary services and extracurricular activities.
The complete information is published in the OCU magazine Buy Master of the month of September.
Free teaching and transparency of information
The Law prevents publicly funded schools from charging for compulsory education, so Your gratuity should be guaranteed for all students. Also for those who, using their freedom of choice, choose a concerted school. The fact that 91% of the schools visited by the OCU had to pay a fee shows that the statement of the regulations is far from being a reality.
Families should be clear about how far the concert goes and, therefore, free education, and from what point they start the additional services they may or may not hire
In 91% of the schools visited by the OCU, the obligation to pay some type of fee (either in the form of a donation or justified by the provision of services such as school insurance, psycho-pedagogical cabinet, medical care, increase in schedule… ).
There is no option to give up these extra services: they are something like a voluntary mandatory payment fee and their cost amounts to 501 euros per year (with important differences depending on the city) The fees in public schools are testimonial and are usually limited to payment of small amounts per material
The most necessary expenses (or not so much?)
Buying the textbooks of an elementary student means an average cost of 215 euros. Although its VAT (4%) has not risen, it remains one of the most expensive sections of the return to school. As for the school material, its purchase is around 110 euros on average.
The uniform - your purchase is testimonial in public schools - is mandatory in 87% of the schools we visited. For many parents the uniform, far from being a saving, implies a strong outlay. Nothing justifies this limitation on the freedom of choice of parents to go to the establishment that suits them.
And what about the complementary services?
A lot of families they face significant expenses throughout the school year because they need services such as the dining room or the route. The most important chapter corresponds to the dining room, with a cost in concerted schools of 118 euros per month (1,180 per year) and 86 euros per month in the case of public schools.
This amount may be reduced during this course with the incorporation in some communities of the option for children to bring their own food to school
School transport is offered by more than 30% of schools arranged: it costs more than 300 euros on average than in public centers.
Many families need to extend the hours during which children stay in school, either by hiring extra morning / evening hours, or through extracurricular activities.
An elementary student who needs these after-school care services will assume (well, their parents will) in total a difference of 1400 euros if the school is arranged, which would raise the cost to more than 3600.
And let's not forget the recent increase in VAT that makes some items in this study have been increased, such as school supplies, uniforms, and dining, transportation and some extracurricular ones.
