PRIMARY schools in the district are facing a recruitment crisis, a public meeting has been told.

Last month, the Standard revealed just four district primary schools were hitting tough new Government targets for reading, writing and maths.

A meeting of Maldon District Council’s overview and scrutiny committee heard a major problem was finding teachers willing and able to afford living in the area.

The meeting was also told that schools in the Dengie perform 10 per cent worse than those around Maldon, while faith schools underperformed compared to non-faith schools.

Alison Fiala, a primary education commissioner from Essex County Council, said: “There is a significant difference between the children that come from Dengie schools and those from Maldon.

“The problem we have in our schools is recruitment and retention of teachers. We need to have good teachers in the district.

“Many schools in the area, particularly in the Dengie, have been struggling to recruit good teachers and to keep them and to develop them to be outstanding teachers.”

Ray Gooding, county councillor responsible for education and lifelong learning, suggested the council looks at providing accommodation for newly qualified teachers to stay in. He said: “Recruitment and retention of teachers is the issue nationally, but things are just as bad, if not worse, here in Maldon, partly because of the rurality of the area.

“One of the things I have spoken about before and would like to suggest again is accommodation.

“Is there any way we can have accommodation available that might make it more attractive for new teachers to come here?

“It is not cheap to live anywhere in Essex.”

The meeting was told faith schools, which make up half of the schools in the district, were performing 13 per cent worse than non-faith schools — a reverse of the national trend.

Rev Tim Elbourne, director of education in the Diocese of Chelmsford, defended the performance of faith schools in the district.

He said: “We are talking about relatively small numbers of schools where one result can have a big impact.

“I do not think that faith school or non-faith school is a helpful way of looking at it.

“There is a difference between correlation and causation.”