Education bosses have been forced to recruit staff from abroad in a bid to ease the strain on teachers in Dartford.

Three Lithuanians and two Swedes are being drafted in to help in primary schools in the borough from the beginning of September.

But Kent County Council's (KCC) assistant director of education, Mr Ian Craig, has defended the introduction of teachers from non-English speaking countries.

He said: “One of the best things about recruiting from other countries is the quality of staff.

“It is unfortunate there are teachers in the area who would rather teach in London than in Kent.

“But we have monitored the recruitment situation extremely carefully and invested a great deal of time and money to make sure although there are a lot of vacancies, they are being filled with high-quality replacements.”

The new teachers are among 60 foreigners recruited to help out across Kent.

They will be based at Wentworth School, in Wentworth Drive, Wentworth, Langafel School, in Main Road, Longfield, Wilmington School, in Common Lane, Wilmington, and Brent School, in London Road, Dartford.

Mr Craig added: “The teachers we have in Gravesham and Dartford are excellent and extremely hard-working. We want to bolster that with this ongoing exchange programme.

“The best thing about recruiting from abroad is the stability these teachers provide. They will be here for at least one year which is better than a supply teacher who might only stay in the post for about a term.”

There were 611 vacancies in the county after the May 31 deadline for teachers to hand in their notice to leave before the start of the next school year.

This number has since been reduced to 250 and KCC education chiefs hope this will go down even further before the start of the new school year.