Dear children: parents’ budgets are being eaten up by tutors, doctors and clothes

A third of citizens are forced to invest in the education of their offspring

In Russia, a survey of one and a half thousand parents was conducted on how money is spent on children. The study involved middle and high school adolescents, from 5th to 11th grade. Education turned out to be the most significant expense item—more than a third of respondents answered this way. Next, the top 3 expenses included teenage clothing, health and entertainment.

The purpose of the study was not only to understand the spending structure of teenagers, but also whether the children themselves know how to spend money. And along the way, it turned out that in a country with free school education, spending on education accounts for 34% of all expenses for children, that is, education has pushed clothing and even food far behind in the answers.

Dressing a child, according to parents’ responses, costs 24% of all expenses for a child.

Adolescent health expenses accounted for 21%. Which is also a bit much for a country with guaranteed free healthcare.

Next comes entertainment expenses – 17%.

They also asked parents about pocket expenses: how much money do they give to an older child? The absolute majority is quite a few. 67% of parents give out 500 rubles a week, 21% fork out 1000 rubles a week.

“As for the school itself, paid clubs don’t help with parental expenses,” says Lidia Leonidova, head teacher of a Moscow school. — Commercial school extracurricular activities are usually inexpensive, from 1.5–2 to 3–4 thousand rubles per month. The official preparation courses for the Unified State Examination (USE) with a subject teacher are also approximately the same. There are social benefits for families with many children and several other categories. I want to remind you that schools provide basic preparation in all subjects, and also provide a basic level for exams. And paid training in additional hours with a teacher for the same mathematics profile is absolutely legal.

Parents express some thoughts about why studying at school has become so expensive. They named tutors and preparatory courses for admission to various educational institutions as an expensive but inevitable necessity. Some also hire escorts for their teenagers.

“Yes, I have a 13-year-old child, he has a nanny,” says Alevtina from Moscow. — Firstly, we go to a good school by metro. Near. The journey takes 35 minutes. We’ve been going there since elementary school. But we have neither grandmothers nor aunts, and he needs to be fed and sat down to do his homework. Without supervision there will be dry food, instead of lessons there will be a computer. That’s why he’s had a nanny since 1st grade. But to this day I believe that it is necessary. My husband and I work late into the night with flexible hours. So at least we work calmly, when we come home, the child has already done his homework. We pay the nanny 45 thousand rubles a month.

Parents who are forced to hire tutors so that their child can learn “something and somehow” also mention electronic tests that are given in all subjects. The system malfunctions, it not only freezes with the loss of answers, but also periodically issues tasks of a higher level of complexity, and in general, with the introduction of new standards, the program does not always coincide with the textbooks issued. Some teachers get out of this situation in class, others “get out” through extensive homework.

“I still believe that it is not clubs or nannies who provide this figure, 34% of educational expenses,” says methodologist and expert in the field of education Anastasia Gordeeva. — Clubs in schools are really inexpensive. As well as preparatory courses for college or university. College courses in Moscow cost from 20 to 80 thousand rubles for several months. University ones can be more expensive, above 100 thousand, but this is for a year. So the main expense item is tutors. Last year we also conducted a survey and found out that about 80% of parents hire tutors to prepare for the Unified State Examination. Almost 20% of them are in three subjects or more. The cost of one tutor is 1000–1500 rubles per lesson, and you need two per week. Yes, even in two, three, sometimes even four subjects. Imagine what this figure is. According to the most conservative estimates, 30 thousand rubles per month.

And parents spend such expenses not only to prepare their children for higher education (according to statistics, more than 70% of our parents want their child to have a higher education). To colleges and technical schools too. In Moscow, the average competition for a good college is 5 people per place. In prestigious medical colleges, for example, there are already 10 people per place. High competition even in paid groups. Therefore, parents of 9th graders also hire tutors.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29211 dated February 7, 2024

Newspaper headline:
A head is worth its weight in gold