Dozens of teaching posts in Essex advertised last year are still unfilled according to delegates at a union conference.

Representatives of teachers union National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) in East Anglia met to discuss their fears.

And the annual meeting heard that 66 out of 173 vacancies publicised in 2000 in the county are still open.

They also reported that many people who stopped teaching did so because they felt they were not being taken seriously, especially when dealing with rude, undisciplined pupils.

Pay was a consideration, too, and they also wanted to be free of the pressure of performance management and Ofsted.

There were concerns that Essex schools are relying on inexperienced staff to fill vacancies: at one school, for example, 12 out of 45 teachers are graduate trainees.

NASUWT regional organiser Tim Beech said the county's delegates were also worried that plans for more specialist schools would lead to "privatisation by another route".

And there was concern that delegates were working 70 hours a week and became too tired to have effective social lives at the end of the week.

By James Tute

Reporter's e-mail: james_tute@thisisessex.co.uk

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.