By Therèse Havenga,
I knew matric would be emotionally demanding. I expected the stress of prelims and finals, the uncertainty about what comes next, and that strange feeling that twelve years of school were suddenly coming to an end.
I thought I should be worrying so long about the costs of tertiary education. What I didn’t expect was how often matric would ask me to open my wallet.
That matric is seldom one enormous expense, I soon realised. It’s the extra lessons, revision courses, study material, the steady stream of “last ever” school events, the matric dance, an 18th birthday, driving lessons (and extra insurance for a younger driver) and the matric holiday. Plus applying at more than one tertiary institution. Each expense sounds perfectly reasonable on its own. Together, they form an onslaught on your bank account.
The pictures of matric dance outfits tell their own story, the arrivals, the professional photographers.
Let’s focus on learning to drive. Published prices in Gauteng range from R300 to R500 for a one-hour lesson, with ten-lesson packages costing R2 800 to R5 000. Once learner’s and driving licence costs, test-day vehicle hire, additional lessons and possibly another test attempt are included, families may need to plan for R3 500 to R8 000. And a car? Let’s not go there for now.
And what if your child begs for the Plett Rage after the final exams? A realistic total can quickly reach R9 000 or much wilder price tickets. It’s remarkable how expensive it can be for your child to recover from an education you also paid for.
There’s no single yearly figure for what matric costs because schools, families and expectations differ. But an illustrative calculation shows how quickly the year can run away with you:
| Expense | More modest plan | More expensive plan |
| School fees* | R57 000 – R60 000 | R120 000 – R200 000 |
| Academic support and material | R3 000 – R8 000 | R10 000 – R25 000+ |
| School events, photographs and extras | R1 500 – R4 000 | R5 000 – R10 000 |
| Matric dance | R4 500 – R8 000 | R10 000 – R20 000+ |
| 18th birthday party | R3 000 – R7 500 | R10 000 – R20 000+ |
| Learner’s and driving licence | R3 500 – R5 000 | R6 000 – R8 000 |
| Matric holiday | R9 000 – R14 000 | R16 000 – R25 000+ |
| University applications and other forgotten costs | R1 000 – R3 000 | R3 000 – R6 000+ |
| Approximate total for the year | R82 500 – R109 500 | R180 000 – R314 000+ |
* Private-school fees vary enormously, and levies, devices, examination charges and other extras may not be included in the advertised tuition fee.
These are planning scenarios rather than official averages. The figures also exclude university registration, residence deposits or a deposit for a flat for the following year. And access to a possible vehicle or public transport.
No wonder parents reach the end of matric feeling financially mugged.
These expenses don’t arrive as one obviously unaffordable bill, but one by one, each carrying a perfectly valid explanation and, quite often, a slightly anxious teenager.
There is also another cost that doesn’t appear in the table: Where the money comes from. The question is, did you save for it beforehand, will your credit card groan or will you dip into your other future needs such as retirement savings?
The answer isn’t to strip all the joy from the year, but a plan:
- Put the whole year on one page. List the likely costs in the table month by month.
- Agree on one amount for the big extras. Instead of treating the matric dance, 18th birthday and holiday as three unrelated negotiations, decide what the family can sustainably afford across all three.
- Give your teenager a stake in the choices. If they can’t have it all, they can choose what is more desirable, and for what they can help pay.
- Budget for the full experience, not the first number. An outfit isn’t the full cost of the dance – think and write it all down.
- Pay for the problem that needs solving. Does your child need subject knowledge or is their exam technique or study plan lacking? Targeted support offers better value.
- Keep an “if and maybe” reserve. Something will come up.
- Keep matric and tertiary money separate. Prepping for tertiary studies needs their own fund, which you have hopefully been saving for.
- Invest in your child. Don’t allow social media to determine your child’s worth. Their potential is so much more, and you have to point it out.
- Protect your future self, too. Don’t make short-term decisions you will regret later.
Matric deserves to be celebrated. Our children have worked hard to reach this point, and we want them to remember the joy, not a year in which every conversation ended with, “We can’t afford it.” Or with resentment.
Setting limits is not the opposite of love. It may be one of the final lessons we teach them before school ends: money is finite, trade-offs are real, and several things can matter without all of them being affordable.
Therèse Havenga, Head of Business Transformation at Momentum Savings.
