The Loans manager at Sainsbury's Bank, said that the number of applications for loans for independent school fees would grow, as fees had gone up by around 50 per cent in less than a decade. He also said he has received 38 per cent more applications for these loans over the past year.



"Around 620,000 children are now privately educated in schools, which are consistently charging more in fees," he said. 'We expect to see a growing number of parents taking out loans to help pay for their children's education. Those parents doing this need to make sure that they shop around and find a competitive loan rate."

Sainsbury's Bank based it figures on ONS data which found that London families spent the most on school fees, averaging 577.20 pounds per year. The East Midlands spend of 140.40 per year was the lowest. These calculations included all households even where they were children in state education and where there were no children at all.

The Independent Schools Council's figures had very different figures showing boys' boarding schools fees being around 21,600 pounds a year and around 20,400 pounds for girls. Pre-preparatory schools for children aged two to seven could cost between one and two thousand pounds a term.

Around 50 of the major public schools including Eton, Harrow, Winchester and Cheltenham Ladies' College did not escape lightly following allegations of fee fixing by the Office of Fair Trading. It caused a bit of a scandal when it was discovered that the schools had shared sensitive information including details of their fees for the past three years and had all been increasing their fees alike. They have been ordered to pay around 10,000 pounds each to a new education charity.

Surveys have shown that more and more parents are fed up with the state system and are making sacrifices to educate their children privately.

Some take one two or three jobs and it is not unusual for the annual holiday to be shelved in order to afford the fees.

Thousands of postcodes of students from 900 schools which are members of the ISC were analysed recently. The number of pupils from average or below average income families was 23.8 per cent, nearly a quarter. In fact 9.3 per cent, around 43,000 pupils lived in areas where the income per household is below the national average. Ten thousand of these were described as "hard-pressed" and "struggling" families or single parents and included those living on council estates or in high rise flats. Recent ING Direct research found that there was a rise from 12 per cent in the last few years to 44 per cent now, of parents who were putting money aside for their children's schooling.

An ISC spokesman summed it up. "The fact that many parents take out loans - and thus pay interest - to cover school fees reflects the importance some parents place upon high quality education. "Twenty-five per cent of independent school parents have average or below average incomes and many are foregoing exotic holidays or new cars to pay for an independent education for their children."