Survey: Teachers Shell Out Hundreds Of Dollars For Classroom Supplies

A new survey has revealed that some Australian teachers are spending hundreds of their own money for classroom supplies.

The Australian Education Union’s (AEU) State of Our Schools survey for 2017 has found that half of Australian public school teachers are spending over $500 of their own money every year on school items including stationery, classroom supplies and library resources while one in 10 are spending more than $2000.

Two-thirds of teachers said that their school was under resourced while three in four believed their workloads were increasing.

More than half of full-time teachers worked more than 50 hours per week on school-related activities, while almost 30 percent of them work for more than 55 hours.

The poll, which was completed by 1428 principals and 7513 teachers, also revealed that over 80 percent of schools are doing fundraising activities to pay for essential supplies, including computer hardware or software, sports equipment, library resources or textbooks, while a majority said it was important for their annual budgets.

One in four used the money for basic maintenance on school infrastructure, while others spent the funds on classroom air-conditioning, camps, excursions and playground equipment.

The survey was released yesterday as the union called for the government to commit to Gonski school funding before the May budget.

AEU federal president Correna Haythorpe said that the teachers should focus more on giving quality education. “Teachers and principals should be spending all their time on the education of their students, not working out how many barbeques they need to organise and run to pay for a literacy and numeracy program. Teachers are aware of the shortages of resources in their schools, and it is a major concern they feel that they need to pay for basic resources which should be available to all students as a matter of course.”

Education Minister Simon Birmingham said the federal government was left to carry the can for the increasing education investment, with commonwealth funding rising 23 percent in four years while state funding had grown by just two percent. “The survey is a union push-poll that was always designed to play politics rather than focus on how we can best support hardworking teachers to drive improved education outcomes,” he said.

However, opposition education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek said the survey results were “alarming”, and restated Labor’s commitment to needs-based schools funding.

Source: 9news.com.au