School financial heads are so busy trying to balance teaching and running costs they are oblivious to the potential cost savings that could be achieved by taking a closer look at their telecoms spending.
According to Daisy Group's number crunching schools are wasting thousands every year.
The company conducted a bill analysis of 118 primary and secondary schools across the country and found that, on average, UK schools are overspending by 43% on their communications (telephone systems, calls, mobiles and internet connection). Some are forking out as much as 77% over the odds.
Tony Harcombe, Commercial Director at Daisy Group, said: "We have been working with public sector organisations for a number of years but have only recently started working with the education sector.
"Before doing so, we decided to undertake some research in order to learn the areas in which schools require the most help.
"We expected to find some of the schools paying over the odds but we were shocked when we found that every single school we spoke to was overspending with some spending nearly four times as much as they needed to."
The study identified three issues bursars and schools managers were facing that contributed to the overspending - not having enough time to manage their contracts and shop around for better deals; not having enough understanding of recent technological innovations to be able to procure modern systems with a cost-saving capability; and being encouraged to procure from approved suppliers that did not necessarily offer them the best cost-efficiency.
Harcombe added: "We're aiming to put together a white paper on the subject to help schools make informed decisions when it comes to their communications."
One of the schools in the research, The Douay Martyrs School, Hillingdon, London, was advised by Daisy that it could save 71% on its mobile bills and 40% overall on its communications over a 12 month period.
Teresa Doyle, School Bursar, said: "When Daisy drilled down into our bills they advised us that, by changing the system and contract we had, we could benefit from annual bill savings which amount to thousands of pounds per year.
"By switching supplier we have made invaluable savings which are allowing us to reinvest our budget into other areas of our curriculum.
"Daisy also found that we had been unintentionally overcharged by our existing supplier for a number of years."
Harcombe added: "By working with organisations like Churchmarketplace, which can assist schools with finding new PSN-approved suppliers, there is the potential for schools to increase their efficiency and reduce costs."