I spend about $1800 a year

Exclusive: Teachers are spending thousands of dollars of their own money to buy classroom supplies for parents too poor to pay for books, pencils and school excursions.

A new Australian Education Union (AEU) survey of 12,000 state school teachers and principals has revealed they spent a whopping $150 million of their own money to buy basic school supplies in the past year.

Each teacher spent an average of $874 on essential school supplies such as stationery, with primary teachers averaging $1067.

One in four teachers spent more than $1000 of their own money – and 12 per cent spent more than $2000.

Most of the money was spent on stationery, such as pencils and exercise books for students too poor to buy them.