Source: Radio New Zealand
123RF
Pencils, pens, textbooks and a full uniform might seem like the basics for any school student, but many families are relying on donations to start the school year.
Several schools across New Zealand can fund parts of their school uniform through their own coffers, local community trusts and donations.
But some school principals said covering back-to-school costs means they have to make sacrifices elsewhere.
It’s that time of year… families are making trips to their school’s uniform shop and rushing to print out school stationery lists.
But for many families in Aotearoa buying back-to-school basics has never been so expensive.
Checkpoint spoke to some parents outside an Auckland primary school.
“There’s no uniform here which, I don’t know it’s kind of a good thing because there’s no uniform costs.”
“Stationery was pretty expensive, $80 for a few books and some pens. I had to Afterpay it,” another parent said.
“The stationery prices are okay same as last year but the uniforms… it’s really expensive, having two children in college, luckily my primary doesn’t wear one, but next year she will be,” said another.
“Expenses are really high, especially [with] the economy these days, it’s really challenging. We have to be really careful, [with] other bills such as rent, power and food.”
Checkpoint looked at 10 school stationery lists across different schools in Auckland.
The cheapest was for a Year One student costing $26 and the most expensive was for a Year 12 student costing over $100, not including a Bring Your Own Device such as a laptop.
Ragne Maxwell says Porirua College is able to fund a significant part of uniform costs for those who can’t afford them. Supplied
Wellington’s Porirua College Principal Ragne Maxwell said if students did not have uniforms and stationery on their first day, it could deter them from going to school.
“There’s no question about it; we have people who turn up who say they won’t be able to start straight away because we can’t get the uniform yet.
“We’ll say that’s all right we’ll gift them some basic uniform and you can buy some more things when you’re able to.”
Porirua College is able to fund a significant part of their uniform costs.
But Maxwell said if schools could fund back-to-school items, it often meant they could not fund other things.
“Some of it’s charity money but some of it’s out of the school’s operational grants and we have to make choices.”
“Do we buy textbooks or do we buy uniforms for kids?”
Christchurch’s Burnside High School principal Scott Haines said when they were putting together stationery and uniform lists, costs were front of mind.
“Trying to minimise those costs where we can. Supporting families to buy only what they need, when they need it, rather than buying everything at the start of the year.
“Working with suppliers to keep pricing competitive, just before Christmas I was talking with our uniform supplier about how we can in these rising times, keep the cost down.”
An Auckland charity called Papers Pens Pencils puts donated stationery from schools and businesses into packs which are given to schools across the Upper North Island. File picture. RNZ / Brooke Jenner
Haines said Burnside High School had a hardship fund to help families with back-to-school costs.
But this money comes out of the school’s own pocket, alongside funding from community trusts.
“[It’s] a mixture of some funding that we provide ourselves and some locally raised funds, the likes international student income helps create a fund for us to support our domestic learners who might struggle to afford the things they need for school.”
George McGuinness, a Year 13 student from Auckland, runs a charity called Papers Pens Pencils, where donated stationery from schools and businesses are put into packs and given to schools across the Upper North Island.
He said the cost of stationery for him and his three siblings was a big expense.
“Scientific calculators are over $100, for me and my whole family, it ended up being $500, $600, just for stationery to get back to school.
‘Most of that in our family doesn’t even get used.”
McGuinness said last year they donated 50,000 stationery items to 26 schools.
“When stationery companies like BIC or Warehouse Stationery have left over stationery that they can’t sell, they’ll come and bring it to us so we can redistribute it.”
Parents on low incomes can apply for hardship assistance for school costs through the Ministry of Social Development.
But MSD said this grant must be paid back and they can set up repayments.
Last year, over 38,000 hardship payments were granted for school costs, adding up to over $11 million.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
