Eton College is not the UK’s most expensive school

Jackie Maguire, CE, Meath County Council

Paper never refused ink

There has been mention recently that if Ireland is to benefit from Brexit, in attracting City high fliers to Ireland from London, that those people will want schools that offer different exams to our own Leaving Cert, such as the International Baccalaureate, available in Ireland. Though this has caught some headlines, not unusually those headlines need not necessarily be true.

Stunned by our education system

The #MakeItMeath initiative, aimed at helping create 7,500 jobs over a three year period, has the backing of a very wide number of groups, associations and organisations right across the county. One of those is the Meath Economic Forum that has amongst its members some of the county’s most successful business owners and managers. The MEF sessions are private (Chatham House rules apply) but I can report that one non-national business head, who addressed our last meeting, did point out that when he got to know the Irish education system that he was stunned (or some such word) at how good it was…and better still that it was, in the main, free.

€250k to get your kids to school?

That set me off to see what those in the UK have to pay for their ‘good schools’ and naturally I thought that Eton College, famous for their top hats and tails, was the most expensive school in Britain. Not at all.  Eton, that produced David Cameron and Boris Johnson, is only in 7^th place of the UK’s most expensive schools, costing a ‘mere’ €40,000 a year – and that’s after tax! Hurtwood House, of which I had never heard of, is the most expensive school according to this International Business Times @IBTimesUK  report at nearly €45,000 a year…and that’s for every child. By my rough calculations you’d need to earn around €250,000 a year to send three kids to those schools – and that’s just to pay the fees. In Meath that can be free.

London calling

If your London bank or firm is thinking of relocating from the City do put the cost of a fine education into your calculations. I’m sure most countries make big claims for the quality of their education system but for historic reasons education has been hugely important to Irish people. So much so that our State, that could just about afford it fifty years ago, made education up to 18 years of age, free for all. And yes, if you want you can also have private education in Meath (at an absolute fraction of the UK cost). Also, many students can, and do, take A Level and Baccalaureate exams. And already many British students, who may have missed getting into Oxbridge, choose to go to Trinity College – just fifty minutes away from Navan, while NUI Maynooth is 40 minutes away.

We’ve got it all

We’re not just the most business ready region in the EU; we’ve also got one of the best lifestyle choices in Ireland, while still being only two hours away from the City. I really think we’ve got it all.