Teachers and support staff dip into own pockets

Teachers and support staff dip into own pockets for kids' learning

4 May 2016

NZEI Te Riu Roa says the majority of teachers and support staff regularly spend their own money to meet the needs of children in schools.

National President Louise Green says a survey of 250 NZEI members last year revealed that 80 percent of members spent their own money on classroom resources.

The survey found that of those 80 percent, 64 percent spent up to $200 a year, 22 percent spent up to $500 and 14 percent spent $500 or more per year.

“Revelations today that the average funding to schools per student has fallen by $150 in the past year certainly won’t have come as a surprise to principals, teachers and support staff.

“Teachers don’t want to see children missing out so that’s why so many of them regularly dip into their own pockets when there’s a shortage of classroom resources or if children are hungry or don’t have money for school trips.

“On a conservative calculation, that amounts to about $10 million a year for the primary sector alone. It doesn’t include what secondary teachers would also spend from their wages and salaries.

“The lack of funding also means there’s a growing inequity between schools from higher decile areas compared to those from poorer communities.

“We know that schools, and parent communities, go to huge lengths to raise funds to meet basic needs because of the funding shortfall and this leads to further inequities in the system.

“Whereas a high decile school can raise upwards of $100,000 from a school fair, for instance, schools in poorer communities struggle to raise a tenth of that.”

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