Hague and Blair clash over teachers

William Hague says the government has failed parents

The Conservative leader William Hague has attacked the government for failing to prevent a "crisis" in teacher recruitment.

But in a speech later on Tuesday, Prime Minister Tony Blair said the government was on course to raise standards in schools.

Unveiling a poster campaign which includes the slogan "Where are the teachers?", Mr Hague has accused the government of failing to deliver its promises on improving education.

Tony Blair said investment in public services would continue to be increased

"School after school across the country is facing a chronic teacher shortage, classes are being cancelled and this comes on top of class sizes rising in secondary schools," said Mr Hague.

"The millions of parents who voted Labour at the last election didn't think they were voting for a four-day school week and bigger class sizes."

"They feel betrayed, because they believed Tony Blair that his priority would be education, education, education."

'Four-day school week'

Mr Hague depicted a scene in which families would be worried about whether their children will be sent home from school.

But the prime minister, speaking in Bristol, said there were more teachers than two years ago and that class sizes for infants had been successfully reduced.

And he promised that there would be a continued growth in financial support for public services, linked to reforms and targets for improvement.

The prime minister also signalled a shake-up for secondary schools, saying that in the next few weeks there would be details of further reforms.

During questions from the audience, Mr Blair defended the introduction of student tuition fees, arguing that the rapid expansion of student numbers made it impossible to sustain the former non-repayable grant system.

Mr Blair said that when he had been a student he had received a full grant - but it had been at a time when only 7% of young people were expected to enter higher education, whereas now the government wanted 50% of young people to gain degrees.

Election battleground

With an election looming on the horizon, the opposition parties want to use the teacher shortage as a way of attacking the government's record on education.

With echoes of four-day weeks and industrial strife under the last Labour government and with the potential to affect many parents, it is an issue that the Conservatives are enthusiastically seeking to exploit.

And he also signalled that the issue of class sizes will be part of the election campaign - highlighting that the reduction in class sizes in infant classes has not extended to secondary schools.

The government has repeatedly rejected claims that there is a teacher shortage crisis, saying there are more teachers in the classroom than two years ago.

And on Monday local authority representatives dismissed the claims of a crisis as an "exaggeration" and said that there were fewer vacancies than a decade ago.

But on the same day, union members at Christ Church school in Barnet, north London, voted to take industrial action against staff shortages, saying that from next week they will no longer cover for absences.