A TEACHER recruitment crisis affecting the ability of schools to improve standards and create stability for pupils is “worse than ever,” it is claimed.

Headteachers say the struggle to employ new staff and encourage teachers to stay in jobs in Oxford is largely down to high house prices.

Education bosses will consider how to tackle the problem when a report on the issue is examined at Oxfordshire County Council’s education scrutiny committee on Thursday.

Oxford Spires Academy in East Oxford, one of the county’s top state secondary schools, recently advertised five jobs and did not receive a single application.

Headteacher Sue Croft said: “It is worse than it has ever been and there are many more children coming through who need to be educated.

“When you put that together with everybody now doing the English baccalaureate – so humanities teachers are more in demand – you have got a really big problem.

“You only need to have a couple of areas with temporary staff not performing to the level of the school for standards to be hit.”

Ms Croft said the crisis also had an impact on school finances because if permanent staff could not be recruited schools could have to fork out up to £8,000 to be introduced to a temporary teacher by an agency.

Each new advert in The Times Education Supplement online costs £1,200.

The report that will be examined by the education scrutiny committee was written by county councillor and education expert Prof John Howson.

It states there was “significant demand” for teachers last year from all secondary schools in the county.

The report said if demand remains as high this year there may not be enough teachers in some secondary subjects to meet demand.

Figures collected by Prof Howson show Oxfordshire’s 38 state secondaries advertised for 289 positions last year – an average of 7.6 adverts per school.

Prof Howson said: “We have quite a large number of independent schools competing with the state schools but not constrained by what they can pay.

“Along with the home counties and London we are suffering badly because of house prices and partly because of the other jobs our graduates can do.

“Clearly it is not getting any better.”

City council leader Bob Price said the authority had been aware of the problem for a number of years but it was difficult to solve.

He said: “The key thing is to try to get significant growth in housing near to the main centres of population of a variety of types, whether shared ownership, low rent or social.

“My worry is that with the combination of the housing situation and of salaries not being very attractive this is going to get worse for a while to come.”