{"id":22142,"date":"2026-01-08T08:46:29","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T06:46:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/rising-private-school-fees-in-sa-could-widen-inequality\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:33:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:33:13","slug":"rising-private-school-fees-in-sa-could-widen-inequality","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/rising-private-school-fees-in-sa-could-widen-inequality\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Rising private school fees in SA could widen inequality\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Education activist Hendrick Makaneta has raised concerns that climbing private school fees in South Africa (SA) are putting quality education out of reach for many families and could deepen the divide between rich and poor.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of the 2026 academic year, Makaneta highlighted that the average annual fee at the ten most expensive private schools now exceeds $24 000, meaning parents could pay over $123 000 for a child to complete the full five years of high school.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPrivate schools can set their own fees, but recent increases have far outstripped inflation,\u201d Makaneta said. \u201cEducation should be a public good and a foundation for social and economic development. When fees become this high, only a small, wealthy segment of society can access the best education. Transparency around school fees is urgently needed. SA\u2019s future depends on an education system that is accessible to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22143,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-22142","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Education activist Hendrick Makaneta has raised concerns that climbing private school fees in South Africa","published_date":"2026-01-08 10:43:05","news_description":"Education activist Hendrick Makaneta has raised concerns that climbing private school fees in South Africa","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25544,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22142\/revisions\/25544"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=22142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}