'Pupils suffer if no fees’

Press, 25 July 1984, Page 9

'Pupils suffer if no fees’

PA Wellington Post-primary pupils could miss a wide range of extracurricular activities, including sports trips and competitons, if parents decided not to pay the school’s annual activities fee, says the principal of Onslow College, Mr William Officer.

Mr Officer was referring to an article in the latest Consumers Institute magazine, which said that parents were being misled into

thinking that school fee or “activity” fee payments were compulsory. They were donations and schools had no right to pressure parents into paying them, the magazine said. It said that school notices about fees usually did not mention the word “donation” and the original demand, if not paid, was often followed by a reminder. A Consumer Institute Survey of parents of post-primary

pupils revealed that 97 per cent thought the fee payments compulsory. Mr Officer said yesterday that his school made it clear that parents did not have to pay if they did not want to. “We tell parents that if they believe the Government should pay they should approach me and they will be struck off our (payments) list immediately. “I appreciate the idea behind the article and it is

something we would support entirely, but if enough parents, on seeing it, decided to withhold their fees, a tremendous amount of sport and so on at this school would have to stop.” Mr Officer said that school fees paid for uniforms and equipment for 12 school cricket teams, for example. Parents could claim the fees as a tax deduction and most did, he said.