TEACHER recruitment and retention in North Yorkshire is getting harder, according to the county's education boss, Cynthia Welbourn.
Miss Welbourn, North Yorkshire County Council's education director, was commenting on the annual report by Ofsted inspector Mike Tomlinson.
His report pointed to an escalation of problems with recruiting and retaining teachers across the country.
Miss Welbourn said: "At the moment in North Yorkshire we are holding our own compared with some other places, but we're also holding our breath.
"Underneath the general picture, some patterns are emerging. There are some senior posts in schools where it's getting harder to pull together a shortlist of quality.
"North Yorkshire can only be as good as the people it can recruit and retain.
"We can't sit on our laurels saying that's OK - it's getting harder here."
She said she welcomed Mr Tomlinson's report, which, although it did not pull any punches, was generous with praise too.
"That is incredibly important in our service. Too often people say what's wrong and too rarely do they say thank you. I think because of the approach he takes, people listen very carefully to what he says."
Updated: 11:58 Wednesday, February 06, 2002
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