From next year, parents in the Dunedin diocese, which covers Otago and Southland, will pay $370 a year for each child in years 1-8 and $740 a year for each secondary pupil.
That is a 10.1% rise on this year's primary fees and a 9.6% increase for secondary fees. Primary fees have risen by almost a third since 2007 and secondary school fees by 28.4%.
Catholic schools are integrated into the state education system but the church is able to charge compulsory attendance dues to meet the cost of land, new buildings, mortgages and bringing buildings up to Ministry of Education codes.
The latest round of increases would be the last of any significance, Dunedin diocese Catholic education director Tony Hanning said this week.
The national system would be in place from next year and the main driver for future increases was likely to be the consumer price index.
New Zealand's five dioceses decided in 2006 to pool debts and phase in a national fees system over five years from 2007, he said. This year, the bishops decided to extend the phase-in by 12 months to ensure fee rises were not too steep.
Otago and Southland Catholic schools had 2747 pupils in primary schools and 2284 in secondary, Mr Hanning said.
The diocesan roll was growing slowly, he said. While some schools had closed in recent years, including St Patrick's in South Dunedin, others were being planned in fast-growing areas. The latest to be approved was the 122-pupil year 1-8 school at Speargrass Flat, near Arrowtown.
Mr Hanning said some parents had complained about the rises, but most were "accepting". An increasing number were arranging to pay weekly or fortnightly to spread the financial load.
Discounts could be negotiated for families with several children at the same school or families in financial difficulties, he said.
