Enrolment In Fee-Paying Schools Back To Pre-Crash Levels
They called me mad. They said it was pointless, a waste of money. That only a lunatic would have an elaborate computer system set up, once manned by a skeleton crew of three inadequately trained, and thus inadequately paid, minors - but now solely by myself - to specifically monitor the changes in the annual enrolment rates of various private educational institutions around the country. They called it a folly to have an alarm system rigged to notify me when enrolment levels return to their pre-crash levels. Well, like the day my three underage employees emerged, victorious in their extensive legal claims against me, from the Labour Courts, today, as the alarms ring around me, is my day of vindication.
All of that is to convolutedly say that, according to figures released by The Irish Times, enrolment rates for private secondary institutions have returned to pre-crash levels.
This includes an increase both in day students and a marked increase in the number of students being sent to board. Fees for boarders now range from anything between €8,000 to almost €23,000 per annum at the most expensive boarding school in the country, St. Columba's in Dublin.
The Irish Times report detailing this rise in enrolment numbers quotes Alexandra College as saying that current boarding figures are now at twice that of what they were during the nadir of the recession.
Indeed, the majority of fee paying schools have thus risen the prices of their annual fees, in a sure sign that the demand for places shows no sign of abating.
H/T: The Irish Times