Kent County Council's education chief says he sympathises with schools that faced difficult decisions about whether or not they should close because of the snow.

Cllr Mike Whiting (Con), cabinet member for education, said it was wrong for schools to be criticised when each faced different challenges and problems.

Nearly 200 primary and secondary schools closed across the county yesterday. Many have complained some schools were too quick to shut their doors to pupils.

But Cllr Whiting said: "It is a difficult one if you are not on the ground to know what the individual circumstances are like. Schools are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

"There are some schools that against all the odds seemed to stay open and others who found it impossible to do so. It is a very tough call and I would not want to criticise schools.

"They know how it will affect them and know, for example, where their teachers have to travel in from."

He added: "I would like all schools to be open all the time but I do appreciate that head teachers have difficult decisions to make.

"There is always a knock-on and decisions should not be taken lightly by head teachers and I am sure they are not."

Some parents have complained that schools were too quick to announce closures when the problems caused by the snow were limited.

Cllr Whiting added: "I am very pleased to see the vast majority of schools have been opened today."

One head teacher who vowed to keep his school open regardless of the weather has divided opinion.

Phil Karnavas, the principal of Canterbury Academy, said schools should not shut if they could avoid it.

He said: "We are a public service and, thus, we should serve the public. If schools close it means children are at home. If children are at home it means some parents cannot go to work.

"This means that they could lose money. Parents should not be inconvenienced unless there really is no option."

He added: "If we believe that education is important because it improves the life chances of children then we should not, nor should we been seen to, look for reasons not to offer it."