GCSE exam fees £750

[MrsHGWells]

GCSEs are upon us in the coming weeks - do all pupils need to pay £750 for exam fees . Is this standard practice or negotiable by school? how do parents cover this fee ?

It is very weird for you to be surprised or upset by this @MrsHGWells

Every child in the country has the right to a fully funded state education, including exams, entirely free from age 4 to age 18.

If you don't like what the state offers you do not have to accept it and can make your own arrangements but the state offer is an all-or-nothing deal. You can't home educate mostly but just send your child into school for maths lessons and you can't educate at a private school but pop into the local comp to take the exams.

Private schools are independent of government control, that is the point of them. They aren't obliged to offer GCSEs at all, they choose to because parents want them to. Each school can decide for itself whether to incorporate the costs of exams into the overall fee structure or whether to charge individually. If you incorporate it, you have families who moved to the area for y9 being subsidised by people who started in yR or y7, and people taking 10 or 11 subjects being subsidised by people taking 7 or 8 - but the school would still need to get the same total income one way or the other so you wouldn't benefit much if they did it that way.

No it isn't "unfair" don't be ridiculous. No one stopped anyone from having it free

Having saved the state many thousands of pounds per year (and tens of thousands of pounds overall) by privately funding their own children's education, you might reasonably expect that at the very least the cost of what are - in practice - effectively compulsory exams might be covered by the state. In fact, I would go rather further and say that it is grossly unjust that you can't claim a contribution per child towards private school fees equivalent to the state funding. That's before we even get to the issue of VAT.

Good.

Both my children are in private education. So I do understand that fee increases etc are annoying BUT it was my choice to send my kids to the school I chose. The costs are a choice I make. I hate the Vat increases but I will never moan about the privileged choice I was able to make for my children.
I opted out of state education so all costs associated with my child’s education are my responsibility .

Of course private pays. I’m surprised you didn’t know. Obviously this is new to you, but if you can’t afford it then you need to take them out and go state. If you can afford afford it, then pay it and stop moaning.

I say that as I have kids in private.

No it isn't "unfair" don't be ridiculous. No one stopped anyone from having it free
Exactly.

Send your children to state school. Then you won’t have to pay anything.

🎻

But its unfair that its an all or nothing deal; surely that's the point. There is absolutely no reason that it has to be that way - it would be incredibly simple to provide a set level of funding per student and then allow choice as to whether that represents the entire funding (state school), or is added to (private school). In fact this already in practice occurs where state schools receive state funding and then 'request' and receive parental contributions on top. So it clearly can happen. The question is why it shouldn't happen more than it does. The only possible answer I can see is that the state sees an opportunity to save it money, and takes it. I understand the pragmatism, but it is totally unprincipled. Let's not pretend that the argument in principle runs the other way around.

Great news op, state school rolls are currently struggling in lots of areas, so please don't feel like you need to stick with private for our benefit, come on back to state!

Why should the choice be a stark, binary one? I would be interested in any principled argument as to why that should be the case.

Because that is how it is.

Want to change it stand for Parliament.

They are not state governed qualifications 😂 All schools pay fees to the exam boards which are privately run companies. State schools have to budget for their exam bill out of their existing budget, they don’t get extra for exams. Of course private schools ask parents to pay, exams are not free. Private schools can also choose to offer the international GCSE qualifications which state schools can’t as they’re not counted in performance tables.

Because it is by definition binary. Go to a state school for free. Or if you want the extra benefits offered by a private school (smaller classes, better facilities etc), pay for them. Why should the government (which is already struggling to fund state schools properly) also pay for people who have chosen to opt out of the system?

GCSEs aren't a Govt qualification. The exam boards who set the exams are not part of the Govt. State pupils have their whole education, including exam fees, paid for.

You have the right to a State-funded education for your children. If you choose not to exercise that right, that's on you.

State schools pay their pupil’s (first time, not resit, state school parents normally have to cover resits) GCSE fees out of the ~ £8,210 per pupil budget they have. If you are paying over £10k a year to your private school, maybe ask them why they aren’t covering your child’s GCSE entry fees since state schools can manage it?

Or alternatively OP send your DC to Latymer. They’ll only do Maths and English GCSE. That will be cheaper

By what - or whose - definition? There is absolutely no reason why it needs to be that way. That's a choice. It's an unprincipled and damaging one. That's my issue.

GCSEs aren't compulsory exams.

1. Many severely disabled kids in State SEN provision will never reach the point where they can attempt a GCSE.
2. Alternative school leaver exams, such as International Baccalaureate, exist, and these are as good as GCSEs for proving educational attainment to enter employment and post-school education.

All schools pay fees to the exam boards. State schools pay them on behalf of their students because state education is free and you were entirely at liberty to avail yourself of it. Private schools either incorporate the cost of exams into their fees, or they bill separately for them. I am not a bursar, but I imagine billing separately is easier and cheaper as this keeps fees down and therefore there is less VAT to pay. It must have been in the contract you signed that you would need to pay exam fees. It is disingenuous to use the 'independents free up spaces at state school' line as if you send your child to private school for reasons of altruism! In any case, the birth rate is falling... If you went to see a specialist under private healthcare you would pay not only for the appointment but also for any medical tests (blood tests, scans, biopsies etc) needed, because you have opted into a paid-for system as you think it is better/faster/more comfortable etc. Why should education be different? You can't choose smaller classes, broader extra-curricular etc and then object when it comes to paying for the measure by which you establish your child's advantage.

😂

Errr by the definition of language. You either pay or don’t pay. There is no Shroedingers middle ground where you simultaneously pay and don’t pay.

When you made the decision to pay, you should have checked what you were paying for. Want free exam entry - do what the vast majority of us do and send your kids to the local state school. In fact maybe that’s the middle ground you should have looked for - local comp plus a tutor.

How noble of you to save the state thousands of pounds a year by sending your child to private school. I bet that was EXACTLY your motivation.

State school pupils the school pays. Private school the school pays and can choose to pass on the cost to parents. Different exam boards will have different charges and some subjects cost more than others. The private kids aren't subsidising the state kids.

Typical GCSE is around £50-55. £750 is a lot; is there an admin fee.

iGCSEs are more expensive than GCSEs, not sure how many private schools do those but that's a factor too.