The difficulties faced by one pupil whose parents had fallen behind on school fees has put the spotlight on a dilemma that is becoming increasingly common in south Dublin
THE RUMOURS are plentiful in south Dublin. The word on the ground is that parents whose children attend some of the most exclusive schools in the country are struggling to pay the fees. Everybody knows somebody affected but nobody is affected themselves. At least that’s what they are saying for now. The bank managers see more of it than the schools at the moment, as the demand for loans to cover what’s owed has rocketed, but schools are cutting costs and at least one has cancelled an annual ski trip. It is likely more will follow.
The story that broke this week of the Junior Cert student sent home from Alexandra College in Milltown, Dublin 6, because of an inability to pay tuition fees, struck at the very heart of affluent Ireland.
Fee-paying schools are scattered throughout the country but with 27 out of the country’s 51 fee-paying schools located in south Dublin, the concerns are particularly acute. For many in these areas, an education in one of those schools, which cost from €3,000 a year to €16,000 a year for boarders, was less a luxury than an essential.
At one point in 2007, an estimated 7,000 places lay empty in south Dublin schools, partly because of demographics but also because of the exodus to their fee-paying counterparts. Fee-paying schools reported waiting lists of 12 years or more and their overall enrolment figures had risen by more than 13 per cent since the beginning of the decade.
Now, it appears that things are changing. Rose Tully, director of the National Parents’ Council, is concerned. “The cost of tuition in many fee-paying schools jumped quite a bit last year,” she says. “I mean, these are families where both parents probably had good jobs in September and now circumstances may have changed significantly.” While fee-paying schools are remaining tight-lipped on the matter, already the non-fee-paying schools that survived the boom are reporting a surge in enquiries and enrolments, and growing numbers of students are transferring to them. St Raphaela’s Secondary School in Stillorgan, Co Dublin, has noted a marked increase in applications and acceptances to its school in the past six months. “There would always have been students transferring from fee-paying schools for whatever reason,” says principal Eileen O’Donnell, “but there are certainly more enquiries than usual now.”
“We have a considerable waiting list of people wishing to transfer into transition year and fifth year,” says Derek Lowry, principal of the non-fee-paying Newpark Comprehensive in Blackrock. “This year the numbers are a bit bigger than usual, not in any way huge, but there is a discernable difference in the numbers of people wishing to transfer who state financial difficulties as the reason.”
Fee-paying schools themselves are well aware of parents’ newly straitened circumstances. A repeat of the situation in which Alexandra College finds itself is unlikely. Many schools are communicating regularly with parents to avoid a build-up of unpaid fees. Most have either a fund to help students whose families encounter financial difficulties, or they reach an agreement to waive at least part of the tuition fees until such a time that they can be paid again.
These contingencies were always there for the one or two who had difficulties, but at the moment they are being called upon with a frequency that was never foreseen. One prominent south Dublin school had a substantial fund for such cases which is now rapidly disappearing, according to a close source.
The optional extras, once a stalwart of the education system, appear to have been affected as well, such as the demand for Junior Cert grinds which has tumbled.
However, south Dublin faces one particular problem. If parents can’t afford to pay fees, where else can their children go? A significant number of non-fee-paying schools such as the Presentation College in Glasthule and St Mary’s School on Haddington Road closed over the years, and many of the schools that survived are full.
Keith Ryan, principal of Oatlands College, a private non-fee-paying boys’ school in Stillorgan, says: “We’ve had a steady trickle of inquiries but we actually don’t have the places free at the moment. We have had a fairly serious rise in applications from our local feeder schools as well. Those have nearly doubled, in fact. I don’t know where people are going to go.”
Newpark’s Derek Lowry says: “A number of schools closed but there still must be extra capacity in some of the non-fee-paying schools given the number of vacant places that were reported. Enrolment policies will clearly state the numbers to be taken into first year, however, so it can be difficult for parents to get students in if that intake is complete.”
Because the economic decline has been so rapid, those in the front line agree that this could be just the beginning. At the moment the non-fee-paying schools are experiencing a steady trickle rather than a flood of applicants from fee-paying schools.
“I simply do not think that we will see the full impact of all of this until August and September when parents are buying books and uniforms and paying for transport,” Tully says. “One can do without ski trips, but all parents will struggle to meet the hidden costs of an education. Put fees on top of that and you wonder how people will manage.”