Parental expenditures on children's primary education

The purpose of this study is to examine parental expenditures on children's primary education and to provide research data for an analysis of private and public expenditures in primary education. The researcher aimed to describe and identify the types and quantities of off-budget spending by families. Expenditures on children's education, and the economic contribution and personal expenses of families for primary education and a spending of government financing of primary education were examined.This is a descriptive study, and survey method was used to collect data on parental expenditures on children's primary education as well as on supplementary education such as tutoring and private courses. Data were collected from parents of public primary school children in Gümüşhane province via a questionnaire. Private schools were excluded from this study, because parental expenditures on children's education of private schools are different from parental expenditures on children's education of public schools. Data were summarized and tabulated by using SPSS v. 15. Frequencies, percentages, and mean expenditures were computed and ONE-WAY ANOVA was used test differences in mean expenditures by grade level.The result showed despite the regulations banning collecting fees from parents during children's registration, parents reportedly paid various fees. Voluntary contributions to school-parents association funds are needed due to lack of financial resources for basic services at schools. Also, secondary school exams cause to spend significant amounts of income by parents. In addition, students' parents devote certain amount of education expenditure during the educational year.Despite the fact that primary education is free and compulsory by the Constitution, this study indicated that parents spend relatively a large proportion of educational expenditures. Ministry of Education should seek additional resources for primary education and use existing resources more effectively to reduce parental expenditures on children's education.Key Words: Education Expenditures, Primary Education Expenditures