Hi Alex, what an interesting question. It's quite something once you really think about that percentage.

I am a single parent who does not get any help with the school fees etc from my daughter's father.

My income is not massive and my child attends a very good former Model C school, I pay R940.00 per month and am thankful that I only have one child to educate.

I know that this school has higher fees than some other schools but my daughter has benefited from being in this type of school. She is happy and her marks are excellent. She is well socialised and has a very good vocabulary.
This is more important than the money that I have to pay and I am grateful that I have been able to do this for her.

Hi there

Schools are so expensive! My daughter currently goes to an Educare Pre Primary, and the school fees are R 1650 per month. This excludes all extra mural activities, which could easily lead to an extra R 1000 every 3 months.

I have one child in a private school and the cost is R3000.00 per month, the other child in a govt school and i pay R1300.00 at that school.

Hi All.

I am now living in the UK and follow the forums from time to time. reading this link makes me shudder to think of the costs you all have to bear. In todays news 24, it talks about how to feed your family for R350 a week... that was a luxury monthly shop for us 10 years or so ago.

Reading the costs for the different education options has helped me appreciate even more what my mum, a single parent with three boys had to endure, late nights, weekends etc, however I must agree with the underlying message coming out, education is key. sacrifices come in many different shapes and I am pleased my mum had the strength to ensure all her boys matriculated.

I have a three year old boy, and mum and I both work, with good enough wages. However with a mortgage, car payments and daycare costs (£150 a week), we mostly have more month than money. The light at the end of the tunnel is we get funding from the first term after the third birthday, not a handout, a benefit available for all british nationals.

This funding will reduce our monthly outgoings and allow for an element of saving to ensure we have options for an education. I honestly hope that one day, this support system becomes available in South Africa for all.

Hang in there guys, your doing the right things. Kids and education go hand in hand.

I am a single dad, and my only daughter is in grade 7 at a private school. Her school fees, excluding books, uniforms etc is R 5800.00 per month. I pay 100% of her expenses - education, medical, clothing etc.
Next year I have booked her in at a private boarding school. The fees will be R 130 000.00 per year, excluding all the extra's.
Due to the recession, I was forced to close my business at the end of last year, so I am using up my savings.
I am also paying my ex R 3000.00 per month for maintenance of my daughter.
My ex now insists that I must continue paying maintenance next year, when my daughter will be a full time boarder, and i will be paying the school for all her meals and boarding. So essentially it will be costing my ex nothing, but she still wants maintenance. Is this fair ? She says that in the divorce agreement I am compelled to pay maintenance, regardless of wether she is a full time boarder or not. I think I need to seek a lawyer to get the maintenance annulled for when she is a full time boarder. What do you think ?

I consider myself something of a veteran wrt educational issues. My eldest daughter started nursery school in 1980 in Half Way house. My eldest son in 1985 in Grahamstown, my second daughter in 1987, my second son in 1991 and my youngest daughter in 1996. All of them, except my eldest daughter who died in 1983 at the age of 6 went through the public school system. All of them have been to university and received post-graduate degrees. My two daughters are still studying, the now eldest is doing an MFA in theatrical design at Tulane in New Orleans (on a scholarship) and my youngest is doing honours at Rhodes (on a scholarship). Seeing I'm a Rhodes employee, I get a 75% discount on academic tuition fees, and when my eldest son started at Rhodes in 1998 I remember it cost me a whole lot less than I was paying for even one of the others at their model C schools. He made life even easier by getting scholarships from his second year on.

Private schools? You can stick them. But maybe I've been lucky... and I certainly wouldn't want to go through all that again. 31 years of watching my offspring study and write exams is a chunk of anyones life.

My 8 year old daughter goes to a very good Afrikaans public primary school on the West Rand. School fees are about R500 a month.

I'm single mom, 3 kids. My childrens' education and afterschool is 12.8% of my income. My total spend on schoolfees for all 3 combined is less than most people on here's for 1 kid for a month. Wow. I must've missed something...

We pay a very small percentage (about 4%) of our combined income to school fees as we are blessed to stay 150m from one of PE's best primary schools (my girls are in Gr6 and Gr3). When my daughters goes to high school, their school fees will more than double, if not closer to treble). Both of my girls do well academically, and the fact that the classes are small (24 and 26 respectively), I am sure does help. I considered sending them to a private school but did not feel it was good value for money. I know that FAMSA used to recommend less than 10% of your income going towards education. The balance of the 10% is going into saving for tertiary education, so hopefully they will not have student loans hanging around their necks later. Also, if you are in a government school, and the fees are more than 10% of your income, you can apply to the school to not pay school fees.