New Zealand state school extras hit expat families on average salaries

Expat families heading for New Zealand need to calculate their finances carefully and include the high cost of state education extras.

New Zealand’s state high schools enjoy an overall excellent reputation for their quality of education, but parents need to be able to afford extras considered by the school as essential for students. Expats considering relocation to the country may not realise their salaries will need to cover at least one expensive ritual being seen as almost compulsory – the overseas school trip. Local parents on average salaries can’t afford to send their children on these trips without taking out bank loans, and newly arrived expat families may well find themselves in a similar situation.

Nowadays, it’s not just about luxuries such as overseas trips, it’s also the inflated cost of uniforms, school camps, activities fees and the requirement that each child brings its own laptop to tech lessons. Mark-ups as high as 100 per cent on essentials such as uniforms are now common, and many state schools now tell families which digital devices are approved and which, usually cheaper, aren’t. In addition, education apps are able to track students from ‘classroom to bathroom’, a disturbing trend.

Overseas trips aren’t compulsory for all students, but the psychological effect on expat kids whose parents simply can’t afford them can be devastating. Parents who’re aware of this are being forced to take out bank loans to ensure their children don’t miss out and be discriminated against by their classmates. Moving overseas to a new country simply because a parent has been offered a job which may increase his or her career prospects is tricky enough for youngsters with their own established social network in the home country but, unless a parent’s salary is generous, exclusion from the student-based peer network might well result.