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Friday, January 16, 2009

Public vs Private Schools

Who would have thought that mummy would need to worry about what primary school to send me to when I've just barely passed my 1st birthday?!

Well, mummy was talking to some of her colleagues and apparently most of them send their kids to private schools.

These private schools can have waitlists up to 5 years!!!!! Since I have to start kindy by age 5, and start Year 1 by age 6, mummy needs to start weighing the options and making a decision whether to start waitlisting me for a private primary school!

The biggest downside to a private school is the fees - Click here to see what I mean (bear in mind these fees are utterly outdated as childcare per day is closer to $100 per day, not $30-$50!!!) Anyways, average fees for a private school is $10K per annum! Then, when it gets to secondary school it's about $20K per annum!? YIKES! That's a lot of money... vs public schools which are practically free!

So why is everyone sending their kids to private schools? Apparently it's better foundation for the formative years, better discipline, better staff / teachers, better facilities (apparently some have tennis courts, swimming pool, etc etc!) and probably better peers as all the other children would be from similar middle-to-high income families?

Oh well, decisions decisions.... It's so expensive to raise kids in Aussie land!!!!!!! Mummy and daddy are already spending close to $20K p.a. on my childcare costs! (Luckily they get a $7,500 rebate from the government... but still... it's about RM30K p.a.!!!!!!!! That's the equivalent of a fresh grad's salary in KL!)

1 comment:

calfLin said...

hey erin just submitted kirsty's application late last year! (3yo).. maybe u can check with her the process and whether u need to apply SO SOON...

she needed 2 referrals to write glowing praises for kirsty! you may need to do the same. don't know!?