"To be very clear, there is no freeze on the purchase of essential items, such as stationery, software and toilet paper," he said. "Any suggestion that campuses and teachers were directed not to purchase these items is absurd and untrue." A teacher at another western Sydney TAFE told the Herald that some staff are now bartering with other sections for stationery and he recently had to "steal batteries" from another section. "Some sections didn't have copy paper and that was when the bartering started to happen," the teacher, who wanted to remain anonymous, said. "I needed some batteries the other day and I talked to an admin person who knew where there were some so we had to go over and steal some.

"But staff at another TAFE don't have toilet paper and people are being told to bring their own. It's amazing, it's like we're in a Third World country." Loading The teacher also said that he has been unable to buy software that students need to complete assessments and other key parts of the course. "I was initially told to hold off on the purchase for a week so I put it into the system and that kicked off a chain of events where I found out head teachers can't approve anything and we can't order anything at the moment," he said. "The problem is that students were told at the start of the semester that these are the assessments we have and now, three weeks in, we're going to turn around and say the resources we promised you were going to have, you don't have them anymore.

"If I'm a student who has paid more than $2000 for a course that's also being subsidised by the government, I'd be pretty annoyed." Deputy secretary of NSW Teachers Federation Maxine Sharkey said the federation has been contacted by "dozens of staff at different colleges" who have complained about a range of shortages including running out of whiteboard markers, photocopier cartridges and globes for projectors. In an email sent to staff on Friday, TAFE NSW's managing director Jon Black told staff to "be more commercial and considered in how we spend, negotiate and maximise savings opportunities". "Review your planned expenditure and eliminate costs or activities that do not support essential business activities. This will allow us to focus resources on frontline learning and delivery," Mr Black wrote. Ms Sharkey said she has been told by a senior TAFE manager that the expenditure issues are linked to the ongoing decline in TAFE enrolments, with a disproportionate fall in students doing higher-level advanced diplomas.

"They're saying there's been a loss of revenue through a loss of fees which has caused the budget problems," Ms Sharkey said. There was a 6.8 per cent fall in students at TAFEs and other government-funded vocational education providers in NSW and a 6.5 per cent fall nationally between 2016 and 2017. The number of students enrolled in advanced diploma programs fell by 11.7 per cent over that period nationally.