Governors have a key role in schools, managing finances, appointing staff and monitoring performance. Their performance is increasingly important when Ofsted rates a school.

Nationally, there is a 10% vacancy rate; in Norfolk, the figure is one in four – 1,000 positions – with a particular problem in the west.

The role is unpaid, and Colin Collis, of the NASUWT, said governors now have 'far too much responsibility for what are mainly lay people. Expectations are too much for an unpaid lay office'.

The council has launched a recruitment drive with a government-funded charity School Governors' One Stop Shop, which aims to attract candidates with business and management skills.

The council said the campaign attracted about 60 expressions of interest in its first few weeks.