THE fear of being branded a failure is putting people off working in many Bradford schools leading to a struggle to fill important roles, according to teaching unions.

Members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the NASUWT (National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers) argue that negative publicity and poor performance of some schools means they have difficulty recruiting heads and specialist teachers.

The Association of School and College Leaders has released figures showing that 52 per cent of schools in Yorkshire and the Humber have vacancies in core subjects.

Schools also reported problems recruiting in geography, design and technology, business studies, computer science, religious education and modern foreign languages.

The association fears the situation will worsen because of a fall in the number of graduates and an increase in the number of secondary-age children. It has called for teaching to be promoted as a "high status profession."

Ian Murch, Bradford spokesman for the NUT, said teachers were often blamed for poor performance of the district's schools, even though it was a much more complicated picture.

He said: "Heads have told me they are having difficulty recruiting specialised teachers and teachers in general. And there is a particular problem recruiting heads."

He said some recent adverts for head teachers met with either just one or no responses and he feels that one issue is the poor reputation of Bradford's schools.

He said: "Bradford has more children with special needs than the average and more children who are new to English, so it is not going to do as well as other authorities in league tables or Ofsted reports.

"A lot of teachers feel that if they teach in Bradford they are more likely to end up in a school put in special measures. They think coming here will damage their careers.

"Lots of teachers are doing a good job but they get blamed for poor performance in schools. Why would 5,500 Bradford teachers deliberately do a worse job here than anywhere else?

"It is like in football, if you became manager of QPR you are more likely to be told you are failing than if you go to another club.

"The fact that it is so difficult to get teachers in our schools is desperately sad for the families of children who go to these schools."

Bradford spokesman for NASUWT Pam Milner said: "There are very few people applying for these jobs across the country. They don't want Ofsted labelling them as 'failing' because they are teaching in a certain area.

"They worry how it will effect their career progression. The burden of accountability on modern teachers and heads is massive."

Bradford Council said it was working on numerous measures to improve the situation, including appointing executive headteachers to oversee more than one school and encouraging outstanding teachers to apply for leadership roles within the district.