Is private school really worth it? Comparing NCEA results to school fees - The Front Page

The Herald has analysed the NCEA and UE data for all New Zealand secondary schools. Illustration / Paul Slater

Private education has always been out of reach for some Kiwis, but as fees for many independent institutions skyrocket, are parents being priced out of the market? And are the fees really worth it?

Herald head of data journalism Chris Knox has crunched the numbers of every school’s NCEA and UE results and he told The Front Page podcast he was shocked at how strongly correlated the measure of social privilege and the average achievement was.

While the data shows most private schools sit at a higher pass rate than public schools, Knox said if you compared private schools to public or independent schools, where there is more social privilege, the results are pretty similar.

“I think the idea that social privilege correlates with people’s education, educational opportunities and performance is not overly controversial, but I think it’s really important for people to think about it.”

Herald senior journalist Alex Spence dug into the growing cost of private education in Aotearoa last month and found tuition fees for the country’s most exclusive private secondary schools have soared by double-digit percentages in the last two years.

Spence told The Front Page the schools he spoke to said they did not have a choice but to pass on rising costs as inflation had driven up “everything”.

“You’d think that significant price increases might affect the demand, but the schools that I spoke to were emphatic that they haven’t seen a drop off in interest. Christ College, which has the highest tuition fees, said its enrolment is at an all-time high.”

He said there would be some parents who aren’t wealthy but perhaps have made sacrifices to get their children into private education because they believe it is worth it.

“I think that those people would increasingly be at risk of finding private education out of reach as it becomes more expensive.”

Listen to the full episode to hear more from Chris Knox and Alex Spence on the state of New Zealand’s private school system.

The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. This episode was presented by Katie Harris, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in social issues reporting who joined the Herald in 2020.

You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.