Catholic schools fee relief

School fees will be frozen at almost all of WA’s 163 Catholic schools next year in a bid to ease financial pressure and provide certainty for families struggling with the current economic challenges. Principals were told on Tuesday of the decision by Catholic Education WA not to increase fees next year. CEWA executive director Debra Sayce said schools had reported that many parents had lost their jobs or had their hours cut, making it difficult for some families to make ends meet. “Parents are facing financial hardship and we’ve always maintained (that) access to Catholic education should not be denied based on people’s capacity to pay,” she said. More than 77,000 students are enrolled at 163 CEWA schools across the State, with diocesan primary schools charging up to $5000 a year and high schools about $11,500. Fourteen Catholic schools have the autonomy to set their own fees, but Dr Sayce said they may also choose to keep a lid on any increases. Dr Sayce said the fee freeze would not affect the quality of education and there was no intention to cut staff numbers or salaries. “We are certainly not making any wholesale changes in staffing because schools have to work and operate and provide the quality education that they do,” she said. CEWA had set up a COVID-19 financial response team early this year to help schools with strategic planning for a worst-case scenario. “We talked with all of our schools about bills, programs and additional cost savings,” Dr Sayce said. “Because we didn’t have a lot of activities going outside of the school in Term 2, there were savings made there with access to venues and buses.” Dr Sayce said there had been a slight increase in enrolments at Catholic schools since the start of the year. In March, when the effects of the pandemic first hit WA, Catholic schools guaranteed to keep children enrolled even if their parents could no longer afford to pay. Schools provided more than $23.4 million in fee relief by June this year, compared with $21.5 million for all of last year. The number of families seeking special fee concessions also increased. By June this year the value of fee concessions had nearly reached the $6.74 million provided to families for the entire 2019 school year.