A WHITEHALL schools supremo has been blasted for being naïve after he said creating more super academies would help solve the county’s staffing crisis.

Today, as primary teachers across Oxfordshire walk out on strike over funding, regional schools commissioner Martin Post has been accused of not understanding the county’s problems.

Mr Post, appointed to the his role by the Department for Education, said yesterday that schools would find it easier to employ and keep teachers if they group together as part of multi academy trusts (MATs).

As reported in the Oxford Mail earlier this year, some classroom subjects like design and technology could disappear from timetables as schools cannot recruit staff to teach them.

Headteachers say the lack of affordable housing and wage gap between living and housing costs make Oxford unattractive to their profession.

And last week it was revealed that with the average price of an Oxford home now topping £401,000, the city is becoming increasingly unaffordable for key workers like teachers.

Mr Post’s suggestion about creating more multi academy trusts was roundly rejected by education expert Professor John Howson and the county council cabinet member for education Cllr Melinda Tilley.

Prof Howson said: "It was naive response to a serious problem. I think the regional schools commissioner did not understand the problem.”

And Mrs Tilley added: "I do not think this (MATs) would solve the problem. The solution is not in our hands. It is in the hands of the government to provide more low cost key-worker housing. More should be done to help teachers but just more MATs is not the solution."

MATs run academies - state schools free from local authority control - and are intended to share best practice, centralised services and make staffing more flexible.

Mr Post suggested teachers at MAT schools would not feel the need to move to a different school to progress in their career and would instead perhaps become a subject leader across all the schools in the group.

He said it might be necessary to ask MATs from other parts of the country to expand into Oxfordshire.

One of the county’s MATs is the Blackbird Academy Trust, which runs Windale, Orchard Meadow and Pegasus primaries. It ran into difficulties in spring last year when both Windale and Orchard Meadow School were rated inadequate by Ofsted, with Windale School placed in special measures.

Speaking at Oxfordshire County Council's education scrutiny committeeon Monday Mr Post said: "In a difficult environment MATs make recruiting less difficult.

"I had a meeting the other day and one of the speakers was from a primary school in Oxfordshire.

"She said working with the MAT had made it easier to recruit and retain because of the continuous professional development and support of the MAT.

"There are benefits of being able to offer a career path for teachers within a MAT, which can go some way to helping with this problem across the region."

Headteacher of Oxford Spires Academy Sue Croft said Mr Posts's proposals would help with retaining teachers but not recruiting them She said: "Much more needs to be done than MATs.

"There is a lot that can be done to make teaching more attractive.

"So many of our students are not choosing to go into it as a career because they see it can be very difficult and stressful at times."

"In geography, design and technology and business studies the number of teachers coming through is well below the number that need to be trained in order to meet needs.

"It is about getting them in the first place.

"High house prices and the cost of living is also a problem."

Rose Hill Primary School, which has suffered from severe recruitment problems in recent years, is not currently part of an MAT but is set to become an academy and could join one in the near future.

Headteacher Sue Vermes said Mr Post's proposals would not solve the problem.

She said:"I think bigger trusts would help. Some of the costs would be reduced by being part of a bigger trust.

"But I am sure it is not just being part of a trust, it is about the difficulty of working in an inner-city context.

"There are not enough teachers coming through. There are very complex factors about recruitment in south east Oxford."