Sending a child to a secondary school costs €1,200 on average

It costs an average of €1,236 to send a child to a non fee-paying secondary school in Ireland, according to a new report.

Grinds are the biggest expense to parents of secondary school students, costing an average of €279, the research by Zurich Life Assurance shows. The second-biggest expense for secondary school parents is lunch at €177. Sending a child to a non fee-paying primary school will this year cost almost €600 per child, meanwhile. The biggest cost to primary school parents over the year is extra-curricular activities, coming in at an average of €191 per child. After that, things like school books (€88) and uniforms (€71) add up to an average overall cost of €584. Almost one in five primary school parents and 34 per cent of secondary school parents have fallen into debt over school costs, the survey found. "The findings of this year’s research show that the cost of primary and secondary education is significantly higher than parents expect and, more than ever, families are taking on debt to finance their children’s schooling,” Zurich Life’s Jonathan Daly told The Irish Times. “It is unsustainable for families to rely on borrowing to fund their children’s future and the most effective solution against this is rigorous early financial planning.”