THERE are 21 teaching vacancies across West Fife secondary schools as youngsters prepare to return to classes next week.

The local authority is currently short in subjects including English, maths, CDT and business education at the seven local secondaries. There are no vacancies at West Fife primary schools.

Kevin Funnell, team leader at Fife Council, said that, at the end of June, there were 48 class teacher vacancies in the Kingdom which were a mixture of permanent, temporary, full time or part time posts.

He said: “These posts are mainly within the national shortage subjects, English, maths, CDT and business education – 21 of these 48 vacancies were identified as being within our seven secondary schools in West Fife.

“The vacancies will change for a number of reasons, schools have been advertising and recruiting over the summer, this may mean vacancies have been filled, but this may also create new vacancies.

"We have over 4,000 teaching staff and individual circumstances may also have changed for some staff which may create additional vacancies. We will have a clearer understanding of the number of vacancies on return from school holidays.”

There are a reported 670 teacher vacancies at primaries and secondaries across Scotland. Teaching unions argue the key problem is pay and conditions.

Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) union, said: “Issues such as excessive workload demands, increasing class sizes and substantial cuts in teachers’ real-terms pay have contributed to an environment where many people no longer view teaching as an attractive career option.

“It is a matter of real concern that so many vacancies exist so close to the start of the new school year, meaning that a significant number of pupils will not have a permanent teacher for their class or may be taught in a class led by a non-subject specialist.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said there was a recognition that some areas were facing challenges filling vacancies.

He said: “That’s why we invested £88m in 2017, resulting in 543 more teachers than last year, the second year in a row numbers have increased. Our ambitious reform agenda is aimed at making teaching an attractive career choice with varied opportunities to develop.

“We have taken decisive action to recruit and retain teachers through our Teaching Makes People campaign and have created new routes into the profession. We have also made bursaries of £20,000 available for career changers to train in priority subjects.”