TWO North-East headteachers have issued a fresh warning about the state of the region's schools, claiming there is now a major issue with recruitment.

Last month, The Northern Echo revealed the outcome of a special investigation which discovered schools are facing an “unprecedented” crisis due to a severe shortage of funding.

Staff at schools across Darlington, County Durham and North Yorkshire told the Echo their focus is now on balancing the books rather than providing the best education possible, with one warning mass redundancies are inevitable if the situation doesn’t improve.

Two more headteachers in County Durham have now come forward, with one urging the Government to do more to make teaching an attractive profession, and another admitting they have never experienced budget pressures like they have now.

One teacher said: "We've got a real problem with recruitment in this country - my school is okay, but I know there are many schools in the region who are not, and they are really struggling to recruit specialist teachers in areas such as maths and science, which is a real concern.

"Everyone thinks teachers work from 9am to 3pm and that is it, but they don't. We've had two weeks off for Easter but it wasn't two weeks of holiday for me.

"The Government has to make teaching a more attractive profession for people – graduates can go into other jobs which are better paid and have a more attractive environment to work in.

"If it doesn't get any better, we will have to start thinking about redundancies. The Government needs to invest in education and fund schools properly."

A head of another school said: "We have never seen budget pressures like we do now, and we have five less members of staff than we did a few years ago.

"We no longer have any support staff and the support for special needs pupils is really lacking.

"We have to battle on but we are facing big problems - the Government has to realise there is no magic solution."

Last week, the Echo revealed a group of parents with children at Fishburn Primary School in County Durham are planning to take a petition to Parliament demanding urgent action to sort out the funding crisis after two teachers were made redundant at the school.