95% of the Romanian parents bore the hidden costs of education during pandemic, NGO report says

The average cost allotted to services like after-school has doubled, while the online education has prompted new categories of costs, such as the purchase of a laptop/tablet, mobile phone or office equipment. All these devices mean an average cost of RON 5,800 per family, reads the survey.

The most important three costs on quality education are for IT devices and schoolbooks, medical and hygiene supplies and food.

If in the past, private lessons used to represent the most important category in terms of costs, as paid sums, now they climb down on the third position, with around RON 2,500 on average allotted, being outranked by other costs that strongly increased during pandemic.

The special class fund, meaning the additional funds paid by the parents for various expenses in the class, has not decreased. The class fund has been mandatory for 13% of the parents. Most of those who pay it say that they don’t receive any receipt. Surprisingly, this fund has remained at a level similar as incidence to the pre-pandemic period, in 2018.