Schools ‘ask parents to buy books as funding cuts bite’

PARENTS are being asked to pay for textbooks, art materials and to buy tickets for school plays and sports events, as schools attempt to plug funding gaps, a survey suggests.

It also indicates that around one in six are asking mothers and fathers for cash to help with the running of their child’s school.

One teacher told teaching unions that pupils were being asked to take photos of homework on their phones in order to save money, while another said they had to cancel a gymnastics lesson as the hall was being leased out.

The findings, by two teaching unions, come amid concerns from school leaders and teachers about growing funding pressures in England’s state schools.

Ministers have argued that funding is at record levels.

The survey, which questioned almost 1,200 members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), found three in four said their school’s budget had been cut this year, compared with last, while 93 per cent said they were pessimistic about their school’s funding over the coming three years.

One in six of those polled said their school had asked parents for money to help with school funding. Most said a sum of money was not specified but 14 people said their school was asking for more than £20 a month.

Around half of union members said their school had asked parents to pay for specific items.

Most commonly, parents were asked to pay for tickets to school concerts and sports events. There were also requests for parents to pay for art and design materials and textbooks, as well as library books, IT and sports equipment.

ATL general secretary Dr Mary Bousted said: “The Government needs to sit up and listen. Schools are already struggling to make ends meet and children are already losing out.

“But Government underfunding means this will get much worse, since in two years’ time schools will have to make savings of more than £3bn a year.

“Unless the Government finds more money and fast, today’s schoolchildren will have severely limited choices at school and children from poorer families will be even further disadvantaged.”