The majority of teachers are having to use their own money to buy supplies for their students and classrooms, due to massive holes in funding.

Most are buying stationery items, classroom equipment or even paying for excursions if children’s families can’t afford it.

Former principal and education expert Adam Voigt tells Ben Fordham it’s sadly nothing new.

“It’s been a longstanding joke in education that being a teacher is the only job you’ve got where you actually steal stationery from home to take to school.

“We get to this point where we get our funding model wrong.

“We haven’t based our funding on needs. We’ve talked about it over the last couple of years and we haven’t addressed it the right way.”

He says one “silver lining” from the find is that it highlights the generosity of teachers.

“When they see a problem, when they see a need, when they see kids missing out they just can’t turn their back on it and they step up and they do what’s required to make sure these kids have got a fair crack at life.”

Click PLAY below to hear the full interview