Grandparents across Australia are quietly reaching into their own pockets to help pay private school fees, as families feel the squeeze of rising education costs..
If you have slipped a grandchild’s school some money without making a fuss, you are far from alone.
New research from the sector’s peak body, Independent Schools Australia, has found more than half of families with children at private schools, or thinking about enrolling them, say they are under significant cost pressure, The Age reports.
The findings come from a national sample of 629 families with children already at independent schools, alongside 879 families weighing up whether to enrol their kids, surveyed between March and April this year.
Most of these families are not making snap decisions either. The research found the majority are saving for at least three years before they can afford the fees.
That long runway of saving is exactly where many grandparents come in, stepping quietly into the gap between what young families can manage and what school fees now demand.
For plenty of Australians over 60, this will sound familiar. A contribution here, a fee paid there, a way of easing pressure on adult children trying to give their own kids the best start.
It rarely comes with fanfare. It simply comes because that is what grandparents do.
The figures paint a picture of families stretching further and planning longer just to keep their children in the school gates they have chosen.
And while the report focuses on the pressure facing parents, it also points to something quieter and just as telling: the generation behind them, still showing up, still helping carry the load.
If that sounds like your family, you are not the exception. You may well be the reason the numbers hold together at all.
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