It is the week before the Christmas holidays. Many schools organize Christmas activities for students. An outing to a Christmas market, a Christmas dinner or brunch, Christmas musical or ‘crazy Christmas sweater day’.
The activities are of course a lot of fun, but can be a significant expense for parents. Participating is without obligation, but it is of course no fun if your child is the only one who cannot go to the Christmas market in Germany because the bus tickets are too expensive.
Many schools ask for a voluntary parental contribution for school activities, often a few tens of euros per year. “But these are costs that are in addition to the parental contribution, and parents are expected to purchase this,” says Lobke Vlaming of the Parents and Education Foundation. against RTL News .
There are schools that take this into account, for example by having the costs of making a snack for Christmas dinner declared for parents who need it. December is already an expensive month and this year Christmas shopping has become a lot more expensive due to inflation.
What do you think: should schools take the costs of a Christmas activity into account?