THE current teacher recruitment crisis in Slough is 'unacceptable' and students' education will suffer unless cuts are reversed, Slough's MP has said.

Fiona Mactaggart said the town was still suffering from competition with London as teachers go there to earn higher salaries.

Miss Mactaggart spoke after recruitment company, Reed, which has been advertising for maths teachers in Slough, said it was 'inundated' with requests for teachers from the town's schools.

The Observer reported last year that Miss Mactaggart was so concerned by the difficulties faced by 13 schools across the area, that she had raised the matter in parliament.

She also took a delegation of headteachers to the Department for Education last year to raise it with Schools Minister, Nick Gibb.

She told the Observer: "I think it is unacceptable. After I heard from headteachers last year that the situation was so serious that they had been forced to put teachers in front of classes who were beneath the standards that they would previously have considered competent, I persuaded the schools minister to listen to a delegation of Slough headteachers.

"He said nice things but did nothing, and since then things have got worse. Schools have less money and can't match the salaries teachers get down the road in London.

"Tough immigration rules and our decision to leave the EU make it hard to recruit teachers from other countries."

A recent consultation on the new schools' funding formula has also proved controversial - placing Slough in the same bracket as London where schools are set to have their funds scaled back. The move is yet to be signed off.

Miss Mactaggart added: "We have gone back to the situation I remember 30 years ago when a Conservative government had squeezed education and Slough schools could not recruit the excellent teachers we need.

"Our schools face the biggest spending cuts of any education authority in the south east of England and unless the government takes action to help us recruit or to grant us more money, Slough students will find their results will decline."

A Department for Education spokesperson said:

“Teaching remains an attractive career, with more people entering the profession than leaving it.

"We are spending £1.3 billion up to 2020 to continue to attract the best and the brightest into teaching, including generous bursaries and scholarships.

“We have also given headteachers the freedom over teacher pay, including the ability to pay good teachers more. This is in contrast to the old system which awarded teachers pay rises simply for time served, regardless of whether or not they were doing a good job.”