In a meeting at the Rafael García Valiño primary school in the town of Yepes near Toledo, parents were told that each child needed to provide six rolls of toilet paper because the school does not have the “budget to cover such resources”.

One parent took to social media to complain about the request:

“We have been told that there is no budget for toilet paper, and that each child has to bring in six rolls. It’s totally surreal,” wrote Carmen Contreras in a Facebook post.

“What next? Will be asked to provide chalks? A bottle of fuel? I’m very angry,” she wrote calling on parents to join her to complain to the region’s Department of Education.

Parents are expected to buy new schoolbooks for the children each school year as well as paying for their canteen lunches, although low income families may be eligible for grants to subsidize the costs of supplies.

Austerity measures during Spain’s economic crisis has seen education funding across all of Spain’s semi-autonomous regions slashed.

The socialist opposition party in Yepes used the “toilet paper scandal” to slam the ruling PP government of Castile-La Mancha.

“It is unbelieveable that while those working for local government see their salary rise, primary schoolchildren must take in their school toilet paper,” said a statement from the PSOE.