If schools were missing more than one in 10 teachers, even a new Labour education secretary would probably admit there was a bit of a recruitment crisis.

But a similar shortage among the volunteer army that has a legal duty to help raise standards in schools seems only noteworthy.

A TES survey - based on returns from 40 education authorities covering more than 6,000 schools and 91,472 governor places in England - suggests the country is short of 42,920 board members. In a small but significant minority of schools - around 1,256 - there were at least five vacancies when this “snapshot” was taken in December.

Governors already feel overburdened with work, responsibilities and government initiatives, and carrying one or two vacancies is a fact of life for most schools. But when the number of empty seats gets even higher, the pressures can become huge. Some boards struggle to be quorate, or do not have enough people to fill disciplinary or appeals panels.

It is difficult to tell if the situation has got worse. The last major survey of vacancies was carried out in 1999 by the Local Government Association. This found a shortfall of 27,000 governors in England and Wales.

The two surveys are not directly comparable: The TES analysis covers England only, draws on a smaller sample, and uses different questions. But both identified co-opted governor places as the hardest to fill, and there seems to be a definite trend away from using party political affiliation to appoint local authority governors and towards better monitoring of governors’ ethnic background.

Chris Gale, chairwoman of the National Governors’ Council, said she had expected worse than an average 11.6 per cent vacancy rate.

“You hear so much about governor vacancies and how disillusioned governors are, yet they’re still doing it.

“Thank God for the ordinary governor who’s doing the job despite all this pessimism, new legislation and the bureaucracy. I think that’s to be celebrated.”

However, anecdotal evidence - and the comments of LEA officers who supplied the data - suggest governor recruitment is tough. In Hampshire, for example, nearly one in five governors stands down every year while only half complete a full four-year term. Although more than 90 per cent of vacancies are filled within three months, 5 per cent have been vacant for more than a year - up from only 1 per cent in 199900.

The reasons for recruitment problems seem clear. Janis Winkworth, governor support manager at Brighton and Hove council, said: “A recent exit questionnaire suggested that the three things governors liked least were long meetings, time commitment and the amount of paperwork.

“The three things they liked best were involvement with the school and children, gaining knowledge and understanding about the school, and getting an overview of how the school was managed.”

Authorities have not been complacent. Recruitment is time-consuming, but as well as the usual distribution of literature to schools, council workers, libraries, and employers, some have tried “taster” courses and open days, individual follow-up work, advertising in local shops, and setting up recruitment stalls in shopping centres.

“Overall, our experience is that local, targeted efforts have proved more cost-effective than large-scale drives which have tended not to recruit governors in the areas of need,” said an officer in an authority which has identified under-representation of ethnic-minority communities as a key issue.

This is one area where progress does seem to have been made since the LGA survey. It found barely two in five councils were monitoring ethnic background. The TES results are better, with just over half doing work in this area - although only a fifth were able to supply any data. Less than half are monitoring age, gender and disability. Only one council supplied data on the latter.

Political appointments to LEA governorships also seem on the wane. Most councils (88 per cent) took party affiliation into account in some way in 1999, compared to less than half in The TES survey. However, at least two LEAs said their appointments were non-political - but required governors to support their education policies.

As for the Government - it has followed up the establishment of the School Governors’ One Stop Shop (which recruits business governors to inner-city schools) with a recruitment leaflet targeting ethnic-minority communities and a national advertising campaign. And now there is the Education Bill, which promises deregulation of governing bodies and new powers to extend the school day and provide childcare.

A Department for Education and Skills spokeswoman said: “We believe that the proposals contained in the Bill may help make governance more attractive. Governing bodies will have greater flexibility and operational control.”

BARE FIGURES: SUMMARY OF TES SURVEY

* There are around 42,920 governor vacancies (11.6 per cent)

* Vacancy rates are highest in special schools (13.2 compared to 11.4 and 11.2 per cent in primary and secondary)

* Co-opted or community places are the hardest to fill (18 per cent vacancy rate compared to 13 for LEA and 10.2 for parent governors)

* Just over half of LEAs monitor governors’ ethnic background, but less than half monitor gender, age and disability

* Nearly three in five councils claim party political affiliation is not a factor in LEA governor appointments: one in 10 says it’s still the only consideration.

* Around 1,256 schools have five or more vacancies on their governing bodies. Just over a quarter have a full complement of members.

Figures extrapolated from data on 40 English LEAs