I fully understand the notion of fees being charged for the education of children. At times there is controversy over whether government’s should fund private schools in any way or whether their contribution should be for public schools alone.

My personal feeling is that a percentage of the public purse being contributed to private schools is fine. After all, most parents are taxpayers and have a right of school choice. That being so, the benefit of educational dollars should be holistically and not sectionally shared.

However, the notion of fees charged on top of government contribution by schools needs consideration. If fees are ‘over the top exorbitant ‘ then schools have it wrong/

I think that charging fees to huge excess of need is a miscarriage of what should be about the serious education of young people. Certainly, schools have to have enough in the way of assets to carry contingencies and overcome shortfalls. However, if they are primarily in the game to make money for sponsors unknown or to boost fat bank accounts, then that is wrong. If they practice undue leverage on parents in order to accumulate funds for ‘boasting’ capital works that are more about image than need, that is also wrong.