The Covid-19 pandemic has pupils and parents to embrace a new way of learning.
Parents have had to think long and hard about online learning as an alternative to traditional schooling. The only worry they have is the safety of their children while online.
These online schools offer either the CAPS or the Cambridge curriculum and annual fees come in between R14 000 and R60 000 a year.
While online schooling does offer significant savings such as school fees and school uniforms, and textbook-related costs are cut down since online resources can be enough to fulfil the academic needs of the students, there is still annual education inflation to contend with.
This year most schools have raised their fees by 5% and this trend is expected to accelerate over time. This is amid a rising inflationary environment in which the annual headline inflation jumped to 5.9% in December 2021, up from 5.5% in November 2021. This is the highest annual increase since March 2017 when the rate was 6.1%.
While most parents might be able to afford their child’s primary school fees at present, this does not necessarily mean they’ll be in the same position when children reach high school or university.
Online learning is in general a more affordable option, as you'll get a high-quality education at a much lower cost due to the lower overheads needed to operate these programmes.