Nearly one in five New Zealand parents are having to work two jobs to make enough money to support their children's learning, a Monash University and Australian Scholarships Group Education Programmes survey has found.
However, questions have been raised by the Ministry of Education about the survey.
The study, titled the Parents' Report Card, found 83% of parents would like more money to support their child's education, with 44% saying they could not afford after-school tutorials or basic extracurricular activities, and nearly 20% said they needed to work two jobs to support their children's learning.
Only 33% of families earning less than $48,000 each year agreed they had enough money for educational needs, compared with 45% of families earning between $48,000 and $96,000.
By contrast, 63% of families earning more than $96,000 per annum agreed they had enough.
Corstorphine Community Hub co-ordinator Lisa Lindsay was not surprised by the statistics.
She said she helped up to 20 Dunedin families a day in financial difficulty.
''It's an ongoing issue for many Dunedin families. It's very, very difficult out there for a lot of families at the moment.''
Children were going to school without shoes, coats or lunches because their parents could not afford them, so it was no surprise that parents could not afford after-school tutorials or extracurricular activities, she said.
Ministry of Education associate deputy secretary Ruth Shinoda said it was unclear whether the report was based on the 2200 Australian and New Zealand Australian Scholarships Group (ASG) members surveyed, or just the 350 New Zealand parents who took part.
''We can only comment on the education provision within New Zealand and not what parents may be asked to pay for in Australia.''
She said all New Zealand children aged 5-19 were entitled to a free education in a state school.
She said the Government resourced schools to deliver the curriculum, and schools were not allowed to charge for the cost of either teaching or learning, including the materials used.
''They may, where appropriate, ask parents to meet the costs of materials where there is a clear take-home component. But a student or their family is never obliged to buy anything produced at school.''
In the 2015-16 financial year, the Government expected to spend $1.4 billion on schools' operational grant funding and $3.8 billion on teacher salaries, she said.
''Many of the costs referenced in the ASG survey go beyond the core costs required by parents to participate in a state education.
''Extra costs can include extracurricular activities such as private tuition and coaching, music lessons, instruments, sports equipment, and sport/gym/drama/art/dance classes.''
It was encouraging to see 78% of the survey's respondents felt their children had all the resources they needed for learning at school, Ms Shinoda said.
''It's also good that 89% of parents say their children's teachers are very capable, and 85% believe the school curriculum will help their child with their future career.''