In Queensland government schools, instruction (teaching) has always been free of charge but the resources used to support learning -textbooks, photocopying, art, home economics and manual arts materials, sporting equipment and digital devices and connectivity- has been paid for by parents. Forty years ago, parents received a government cheque to cover some of these costs and parents went out and used this and (much more of) their own money to buy materials and paid fees to the school.
In agreement with the Parents and Citizens' Association, this government assistance to parents now comes directly to the school and is supplemented by the school's Resource Hire Scheme charge to help pay for learning materials which continue to be a parental responsibility. To ensure fairness and to reduce costs to parents, those families that are part of the Resource Hire Scheme, receive access to all the resources needed for learning at a fraction of their real cost. School textbooks now cost a minimum of $60 each, many are over $100. Those who choose not to be part of the Resource Hire Scheme (and I have not encountered a single family in my time at this school) will have to purchase these materials themselves and pay a fee to the school to cover services such as IT connection fees, sports affiliation fees and consumables for subjects such as art. The cost of these parental responsibilities is over $1000 per year. In non-government high schools, the cost of learning materials charged to parents is often over $2000. Here our resource scheme charge is $275 for Years 7 to 9 and $325 for Years 10 to 12. This is $1.37 and $1.62 per school day!
The excellent value provided by this scheme ensures that every single parent takes part. This is a genuine case of a school providing a major benefit to parents at about a quarter of the cost of non-participants. For the record, as the parent of students at my local state high school, I regarded being part of the school's Resource Hire Scheme as the best bargain of the year.
Tom Beck
Principal: Redbank Plains State High School