Elite UK schools to help cash-strapped parents

LONDON: Jackie Prosser is a determined mother. Working in fashion, she says she is highly exposed to the global recession, but plans to cut back on other treats to keep her seven-year old at his fee-paying school.

'Pulling my boy out of the school is the last resort,' said Mrs Prosser, who is head of the Parents' Association at Cheadle Hulme School near Manchester, where basic fees range from £2,230 to £2,876 (S$6,120) per term.

As the slowdown deepens, some of Britain's private schools are feeling the pinch - even Eton College, which has educated the elite for centuries, has set aside emergency funds to tide over cash-strapped parents.

Applications so far are not a problem, said many of the larger establishments that have built a franchise in educating the offspring of the world's wealthy and ambitious.

But mindful of the extent to which modern fortunes have been built on debt, Eton - a boys-only school founded in 1440 - has made preparations to help parents with its £9,360 termly lodging and tuition fees.

Some schools also hope the weak pound could assist those overseas parents who want to buy a British education.

'It remains to be seen whether some parents withdraw, but we have already promised assistance to a number of boys and we have reserved funds to help as many new applicants as possible with bursaries if they are needed,' Eton bursar Andrew Wynn told Reuters.

Smaller private schools in rural areas are already under threat and some could face closure, headmasters and researchers said.

Ms Sue Fieldman, editor of the Good Schools Guide publication, said more than 12 schools in northern England had closed or merged since September last year. 'I expect that by July this year, about 2,500 families in the capital alone could ask for fee payments to be restructured or deferred as the credit crunch bites further into family purses.'

In the last recession in Britain in the 1990s, private student numbers declined by about 11,500, according to the Independent Schools Council (ISC).

Britain's 2,600 private schools educate 7 per cent of all schoolchildren in the country. Most British children attend taxpayer- funded state schools but some wealthy parents choose to pay for extra facilities, strong academic records and the prestige attached to the private system.

The ISC said there are more than half a million students in independent schools. Overseas pupils make up about 4 per cent of the total and accounted for fees of £438.18 million in the year 2007/2008.

Mr Richard Murphy, a research economist at the Centre for the Economics of Education, said they are expecting more students from Asia. Asian pupils contributed £236.18 million or more than half the 2007/2008 fees, according to ISC data.

The Good Schools Guide's Ms Fieldman noted that Asian parents are typically drawn to big-name boarding schools, which are not hit by the crisis.

The ISC's chief executive David Lyscom said the institutions in his organisation were still showing long waiting lists.

REUTERS