Private schooling group Curro is chasing quality rather than quantity with the group taking a firmer stance on parents who fail to pay for their children’s education.
The company said in a trading update on Monday that it had 72,835 registered learners as of this month, compared with 70,408 learners in February last year.
Curro, valued at R5.39bn on the JSE, said it would have had a larger enrolment number had it not put measures in place to arrest an increase of nonpayment from parents.
“Management’s disciplined termination of long overdue accounts restrained the overall learner growth from the previous year, but we are confident that this responsible approach will sustain and improve the group’s operating margin,” the company said.
The company said in August, when it reported six months ended June 2022 results, it had sold the non-performing portion of its debtors’ book, which relates to learners who have left Curro.
“The remaining debtors’ book, net of the expected credit loss provision, consists of R175m of actively enrolled accounts and R74m of inactive accounts. The ageing of outstanding accounts for enrolled learners improved further during the first half of this year. Concerted efforts are being made to recover outstanding amounts, including more frequent terminations of non-paying accounts,” the company said at the time.
Data from credit bureau group TPN showed 38% of SA parents are behind on school fees, with many private schools losing learners as parents struggle to keep up with the rising cost of living.
Curro said it expects to report recurring headline earnings per share of between 25.9% and 45.5% higher for the year ended 21 December 2022.
Established in 1998, Curro has seen its numbers grow over the years as more parents invest in the education of their children to learn at the school where most classrooms have about 25 learners.
Curro’s Matric Class of 2022 recorded a 98.63% pass rate. This achievement is based on the performance of its 1893 learners who wrote the Independent Examinations Board exams last year.
Small Talk Daily analyst Anthony Clark told Business Day that despite economic challenges such as high inflation and interest rate hikes affecting consumer spending, parents “continue to want to have the best education for their children given the failure of the state system”.
The company’s annual results will be published on March 2.
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