Making the choice to become a parent shouldn’t be taken lightly.

After all, that decision comes with a slew of financial costs, not least of which is ensuring your little one is given a decent education.

I shudder at the thought of what some of the schools below will be charging in a decade’s time (when your three-year-old will be high-school age) because the figures are already astronomical.

The 20 most expensive schools in the country saw an average fee hike of 7% this year, reports BusinessTech, and for the first time ever, the R300 000-a-year barrier has been broken.

Congrats, I guess?

BusinessTech’s list of the 10 most expensive schools for 2020 is as follows:

• Hilton College – R321,890

Steep, but your young’un could learn some invaluable life lessons along the way. That’s Hilton pictured up top, by the way.

It has its own nature reserve, among other things.

The rest of the top 10 are as follows:

• Michaelhouse – R303,600
• St Andrew’s College – R291,000
• Roedean School for Girls – R287,558
• St John’s College – R284,198
• Bishops College – R277,800
• Kearsney College – R277,200
• St Mary’s Waverly- R272,240
• St Andrew’s School for Girls – R265,270
• St Alban’s College – R264,900

As an added bonus, those figures generally don’t include costs associated with extramural activities and the like.

Last year, we tallied what a five-year education might set you back in the decades to come, in case you really want to recoil in horror.

All of those above are boarding schools, and if we narrow the list to the cost of day schooling only, it’s Kearsney College that comes out on top.

You’ll be forking out R190 740 a year, with St John’s College second on the list at R167 658 per year for day learners.

In case you’re wondering, Bishops comes in at fourth, costing R158 620 a year for day learners.

For the full list of South Africa’s most expensive schools, head to BusinessTech.

[source:businesstech]