Leona Lim, a mother of two, said she paid over RM1000 for her son when he enrolled in preschool.
Both her children go to a private school in Kajang, which offers both preschool and primary school education.
“But I hear even government preschools are considered expensive now. There may be no monthly fee, but the initial costs are still expensive,” Lim said, adding that her friend, a mother of three, had lamented how paying for all her children had quite literally emptied her wallet.
Her friend, she revealed had to fork out money for uniforms, apparatus, even canteen fees.”
“For our kindergartens, fees did rise a little bit, not a whole lot. Of course, we still have to sacrifice a lot more. The initial fees are already quite high. They also need to have a laptop, apparently.”
Amy Yip, a mother of two living in Puchong, agreed.
“They increase fees every year, at least around RM50 to RM100. And we’re only talking monthly tuition fees. I haven’t counted the miscellaneous fees, which range from RM100-RM200.”
Yip said that last year she paid RM410, while this year she would have to pay around RM450.
“How can you afford it? Imagine if you are a young couple. Total costs would be around RM700 to RM800 a month.”
“I could pay my car instalments with that money. It’s not cheap, it’s quite taxing, actually.”
David Wang, a father of one in his 30s, concurred, sharing how much he had to pay for his son.
When his son Zack began kindergarten, the fees were RM380, RM340 & RM320 for Years Four, Five and Six respectively.
However, he revealed, this year the fee increased to RM380 for Year Five and RM430 for Year Six.
“There are no alternatives where we live,” said Yip when asked if parents had any other choice they could consider. “We used to go to the Methodist Church kindergarten which was very cheap — RM100-RM200 only.
“Now not even the churches are offering that. All of their kindergartens have been privatised. They sub(let) them out to Montessori, and so on, let them handle the whole thing.”