SWINDON'S school are facing another crisis over teacher recruitment.

It will be one of the first big challenges for new director of education Hilary Pitts, who takes over in October on a £100,000 salary.

There were 193 teaching jobs for Swindon's schools advertised this summer, one more than last year.

Of these, 99 were at primary schools, 88 at secondary and six at special schools.

With around 1,400 teaching posts in the town, this means that almost 15 per cent of teaching jobs are being advertised this summer.

So far more than one in three of the vacancies advertised have yet to be filled.

The figures are similar to last year but vacancies in secondary schools are down by nine per cent.

The situation is so bad at some schools that five secondary schools in the town have advertised more than 12 jobs each.

Andrew Nye, chairman of the Swindon Association of Primary Heads, said: "We are still in deep crisis.

"The problem is there aren't teachers out there prepared to do the job.

"More than half the trained teachers in the town do not do the job and something has to be done to bring them back."

Phil Baker, secretary of the Swindon branch of teachers union ATL, said the high cost of living in Swindon was putting people off, with teachers he knew forced to commute from as far as Newport, Bristol and Cheltenham.

He said: "There is a crisis in attracting teachers to live in Swindon so the town has to sell itself, especially in the light of the council's failed Ofsted report, which people think reflects on schools.

"The schools in more challenging circumstances such as Hreod Parkway and Churchfields face difficulties too because teachers look at the league tables and choose somewhere higher up because it is an easier option."

The shortage subjects are maths, English and information and communication technology (ICT).

Hilary Pitts will be the fourth person to run the town's education department in the last 18 months, following the disastrous report by government inspectors Ofsted.

Dr Mike Lusty was director of education on an £80,000 salary but left in January 2001, shortly after the damning report of his department.

He handed over to the council's chief executive Paul Doherty, who ran the department until John Simpson from private firm Tribal arrived at the beginning of April.