18 million pounds or more thanhalf the 20078 fees according to ISC data

By Martina Fuchs Currencies China LONDON, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Jackie Prosser is a determinedmother. Working in fashion, she says she is highly exposed tothe global recession, but plans to cut back on other treats tokeep her seven-year old at his fee-paying school. "Pulling my boy out of the school is the last resort," saidProsser, who is head of the Parents' Association at CheadleHulme School near Manchester, where basic fees range from2,230-2,876 pounds ($3,096-3,994) per term. As the slowdown deepens, some of Britain's private schoolsare feeling the pinch even Eton College which has educatedthe elite for centuries has set aside emergency funds to helptide over cash-strapped parents. Applications so far are not a problem, say many of thelarger establishments that have built a franchise in educatingthe offspring of the world's wealthy and ambitious.

But mindful of the extent to which modern fortunes have beenbuilt on debt, Eton a boys-only school founded in 1440 hasmade preparations to help parents with its 9,360 pound termlylodging and tuition fees. Some schools also hope the weak pound could assist thoseoverseas parents who want to buy a British education. "It remains to be seen whether some parents withdraw, but wehave already promised assistance to a number of boys and we havereserved funds to help as many new applicants as possible withbursaries if they are needed," Andrew Wynn, the bursar of thecollege, told Reuters. Smaller private schools in rural areas are already underthreat and some could face closure, headmasters and researcherssay.

"I expect that by July this year, about 2,500 families inthe capital alone could ask for fee payments to be restructuredor deferred as the credit crunch bites further into familypurses," she told Reuters. "Otherwise, 1,000 children in London would have to leavetheir private schools in their parents' worst-case scenario." In the last recession in Britain in the 1990s, privatestudent numbers declined by about 11,500, according to theIndependent Schools Council (ISC). ASIAN APPEAL Britain's 2,600 private schools educate 7 percent of allschoolchildren in the country. Overseas pupils make up about 4 percent ofthe total and accounted for fees of 438.18 million pounds in theyear 2007/2008.

Sterling on Tuesday hit a 7-1/2 year low against the dollar,and was at a record low against the yen, undermined by interestrates near zero and heavy borrowing plans. "The pound has weakened against the yen by 40 percent sinceJanuary last year, so we expect more foreign students fromAsia," Richard Murphy, a research economist at the Centre forthe Economics of Education, told Reuters "It will be harder for U.S. private schools to attractforeign students, the demand will be bigger for private schoolsin the UK because of the good exchange rate," he added. Asian pupils contributed 236.18 million pounds or more thanhalf the 2007/8 fees, according to ISC data. Dominic Scott, Chief Executive of the UK Council forInternational Students' Affairs, said he expected increasingnumbers of well-off students to come to private schools inBritain, especially from China, Malaysia and Singapore. In Hong Kong, Katherine Forestier, director of EducationServices at the British Council, said there has been an increasein the number of students considering taking advantage of theweaker pound this year to get an education in Britain.