Education / School Costs in New Zealand
State education in New Zealand is meant to be free of charge. In reality, however, there are costs.
You need to pay for your childrens' school uniforms, pencils, pens, glue-sticks, stationary etc. Text-books can be provided free of charge, unless their use involves writing on them and they cannot be returned to the school. Some schools charge for textbooks.
Most state schools charge a fee of somewhere around $100 - $200 per year per child, although some charge considerably more than this. Although payment of the fee is voluntary, most parents pay. The fee pays for extra resources for your children's school, photocopying, etc and it is tax-deductable.
The New Zealand government provides more money to schools in socially deprived areas than it does to schools in better-off areas. The result of this is that, in order to make ends meet, schools in better-off areas tend to charge higher "voluntary" fees than schools in poorer areas.