School staff want WA’s school fee system changed, saying voluntary charges mean schools in poorer areas miss out.

Western Australian public schools are able to ask parents for a voluntary contribution of $60 a year per student at primary schools and $235 at high schools.

The money goes straight to the school and is meant to be used for the specific needs of that student body.

But new stats from the Education Department show that in some less affluent areas, only around half of the parents buy in, and so the school is disadvantaged compared to those in rich suburbs.

Principals and teachers say it serves only to more deeply entrench the disadvantage some students face, and that the system should be changed to a needs-based funding allocation model.

Data from WA Education Department shows and average collection rate for primary schools of just 57.63 per cent last year, up 1 per cent on the previous year.

At secondary schools, the collection rate increased less than 1 per cent to 53.5 per cent.

Country parents seem to see the need better than city-dwellers, with a number of regional schools reporting a 100 per cent payment rate, but a social-economic split is evident across Perth.

Affluent metropolitan areas such as Dalkeith, Cottesloe, Rossmoyne and Rosalie saw over 98 per cent of parents paying the fees, whereas less-wealthy regions had much lower rates; Nulsen Primary in Esperance (6.9 per cent), Avonvale in Northam (10.84 per cent), Durham Road in Bayswater (13.08 per cent), Dudley Park in Mandurah (14.06 per cent) and Balga (15.13 per cent).

WA State School Teachers' Union president Pat Byrne has told the ABC that clearly, the funding model needs to change.

“Well I think it's obvious from the figures that there are some schools that are doing it very, very tough,” she said.

“We know who they are, we know where they are, the Government needs to start funding according to the needs of those schools.

“Either it's got to find a way to get more people to pay the contribution, or in fact it has to fund those schools directly according to the school's needs.

“We have a bit of a problem with equity,” WA Primary Principals Association president Stephen Breen told reporters.

“It's based on postcode, so the higher socio-economic deliver more money into the school and the lower socio-economic deliver less money into the school.”

“Politicians have got their head in the sand and unless we have a [needs-based] system we will never never be a high-performing country,” he said.

WA Education Minister Peter Collier is on leave, but many are waiting for an expected announcement on new school funding allocations when he returns.