Private school group Curro has published a new shareholder presentation showing the monthly school fees parents can expect to pay when sending a learner to one of its schools.
The group – which currently has 166 schools and 70 campuses under management – said it expects learner numbers to grow over the coming year.
From end 2019 to the start of the 2020 period, learner numbers grew by 9% from 57,597 to 62,689.
Curro said that strong growth was achieved in high school grades, with a significant rise in Grade 8 learner numbers, especially in Curro Academy schools.
School fees can differ quite dramatically depending on the type of school in the portfolio (eg Curro Select, Curro Castle, Curro DigiEd) as well as its location .
For example, it can cost approximately R94,000 per year, or R8,005 per month to send a Grade 10 child to Curro Rivonia – while it will cost around R116,000 per year (R10,500 per month) to send a Grade 10 student to Curro Waterfall.
By comparison, it will cost only R60,000 per year for a Grade 12 student to attend Curro Hermanus and R65,400 per year for Curro Thatchfield.
The below table shows how much it costs on average monthly fees of these schools by age group.
Curro said its focus in 2020 will be to invest capital in its current schools to accommodate the rapid increase in the high school learners.
It added that it will continue to look for attractive acquisition opportunities and that it will focus on delivery and enhancement of quality education (academic, sport and culture).
During 2019, R1.3 billion was invested in the business. The capital was deployed in the following projects:
- Construction of four new campuses (five schools) to the value of R185 million. These campuses include Curro New Road (Gauteng), Curro Delft (Western Cape) and Curro Academies at the Blyde (Gauteng) and Mbombela (Mpumalanga);
- R949 million invested in the expansion of existing campuses, which included significant expansions at Curro Vanderbijlpark, Building Blocks, Curro Hillcrest and Curro Academy Pretoria;
- R24 million invested in land banking and R127 million on acquisitions.