Stress is being blamed for the soaring amount of days off sick being reported among teachers and other school staff across the county.

Shock figures from county education chiefs show that about 90,000 sick days were taken by staff working across Kent schools last year - the loss of 18,000 working weeks caused by illness.

The figures suggest sickness levels deteriorated year-on-year by a small margin, taking into account actual staffing numbers in schools.

In 2012-13, 90,000 days sick were taken by a schools' workforce of 23,911 - an average of 3.7 days per person for the year.

In 2011-2012, a total of 94,485 sick days were taken by a workforce of 26,246 - an average of 3.6 days per person.

The figures cover all school staff including clerical and teaching assistants.

Unions say that teachers and other staff are operating under unprecedented stress levels because of the pressure imposed by Ofsted inspections and a demand for even better standards.

John Walder, the Kent branch secretary of the NUT, said sickness levels would reduce if the government stepped back and allowed schools themselves to evaluate progress and staff performance.

He said: "I can say, from what I see, that there are an increasing number of staff who are off long term because of the stress.

"There is always the usual crop of broken bones and operations, but the biggest element is by far the stress factor.

"Almost always, it is to do with the pressure put on teachers by the system and particularly Ofsted and from league tables."

Many more teachers were anxious about schools using capability procedures against them to get rid of those who were considered to be under-performers, he added.

He said Kent schools suffered from a "distressingly low" number of applicants for vacancies, particularly from outside the county.

Opposition UKIP spokesman Cllr Adrian Crowther said teachers faced more stress than they used to because of dwindling parental support.

"Respect for teachers from parents and pupils has wlited away. The support that parents used to give staff is not always there.

"Stress is something in its various ways that does seem to affect an awful lot of teachers."

Sickness levels among county council staff, meanwhile, have shown a slight fall, according to figures.

KCC said that the number of days lost per council employee for 2012-13 averaged 7.38, compared to 7.78 in 2011-12.