I've seen a whole lot of horse cr@p on the cost of CEA in the previous posts when the maths (or math for our colonial cousins) doesn't stack up...
6,000 service children in CEA scheme at maximum £5833 per term = £105M per year
HOWEVER, not everyone is on maximum of £5833...
Some are on CEA(Board) Junior at £4482, CEA(Day) Junior at £2640 and CEA (Day) Senior at £3505 per term.
So if we take an average at £4000 per term for the whole CEA scheme then 6,000 service children costs £72M, which is just 533 Typhoon sorties at full cost (approx £90k per hour - DASA figures) just to put the CEA figure into perspective. 533 Typhoon sorties is about the average number of sorties in 3 months for training on a single Typhoon Squadron (assuming 8 sorties per day). I think this puts this into perspective nicely.
A lot different to some of the figures I've seen quoted on this thread!!!
Also, don't forget that there is a £4330 per term allowance within the CEA scheme for those posted to Wales who don't want their children to learn a language that is largely useless unless you visit a small area in Patagonia (and Wales, which isn't much bigger!). It's called CEA(NW) - Day School North Wales. If we bin that then there will be serious retention problem and getting people to accept posts at Valley.
ffarwel
LJ