The survey of more than 1200 primary, secondary, K-12 and special education teachers, conducted by the NSW Teachers Federation, found an average out of pocket expense of $1848, or more than three per cent of a beginning teacher’s salary.

Principals were the biggest spenders, forking out an average of $2601, and primary teachers spent more than secondary teachers - $1953 compared to $1503.

Teachers were found to spend money on everything from student lunches and bus fares to supplementing school toiletries and cleaning equipment.

About half of teachers’ total work expenses were for classroom supplies, including drawing materials, exercise books and craft supplies, educational materials including books and sporting equipment, and classroom furniture.

Other expenses were incurred for accompanying students on excursions and camps, with some spending up to $3000, and keeping up with professional readings and development courses.

Head of Teacher Education at the University of Technology Sydney Peter Aubusson said Australia had one of the most inequitable education systems in the OECD, and that some schools struggle to provide essentials while others have ample funding.

“As a society we don’t want to be sending the message that education is not worth resourcing or creating a situation where the learning experiences of children are determined by their teachers’ willingness or capacity to pay,” Dr Aubusson said.

“Until we prioritise equity, which is what Finland did and reaped the rewards, we will continue to lament our so-called long tail in international comparisons.”

The survey found that while some schools allocated individual classroom teachers a small budget of several hundred dollars to spend on their class, two thirds of teachers surveyed indicated that they did not receive a classroom budget.

Through previous survey results and conversations with teachers, the NSW Teachers Federation determined that some of the reasons teachers decided to bear these costs was because of the inadequacy of school global budgets and the desire that students not miss out.

Other reasons the NSW Teachers Federation cited for teachers’ expenses was an expectation that spending their own money on classroom resources was part of the job, and the need to feel they were doing their job properly.

The president of the Federation Maurie Mulheron said public schools have been under resourced for many years and it is becoming more and more common for teachers to buy supplies themselves.

“Very few teachers will see kids go without … Most teachers will scrimp and save or get things somehow,” Mr Mulheron said.

He said it was “totally unreasonable” that teachers have had to provide resources out of their own pocket.

“You can’t just keep relying on the goodwill of teachers.''

Lila Mularczyk, President of NSW Secondary Principals’ Council and principal of Merrylands High School in Sydney’s west, said she works hard to articulate to her staff that they do not have to fork out any money from their own pockets.

“Having been in the system for 31 years, I actually used to [spend a lot of my own money on school resources] when I was a classroom teacher myself and I don’t necessarily now see that that was how it needed to be. It was just a culture I think that developed and I don’t believe that it needs to be that way.”

Ms Mularczyk wanted her staff to feel comfortable to talk to her if they felt budget constraints prohibited them from doing their job well, so they could discuss and prioritise.

“I don’t want a culture of teachers putting their hands in their pocket. It’s not how we should be providing education for our young people,” she said.

CASE STUDY

Casual primary school teacher Jane Le, from Sefton, has been spending almost $1200 a year on school resources in the two years she has been teaching.

The 28-year-old said because she travels to different schools within south western Sydney all the time, she never knows what resources the school will have so she needs to have back-up supplies.

“Sometimes schools lock up their storerooms so you can’t actually use their supplies,” Ms Le said.

When Ms Le started teaching she bought a good quality laminator to make resources, and since then she has been continually purchasing educational materials including textbooks, graph paper, dice, chalk and equipment for science experiments.

She said as a casual, working anywhere from two to five days a week, it can be financially challenging.

“

Every time that you’re going out buying something it all adds up and you don’t get 100 per cent of that back on tax.”