700 teaching vacancies in schools

SCOTLAND’S schools started the new academic year with more than 700 teacher vacancies, new figures have revealed.

Using freedom of information laws, the Lib Dems have established there were 729 teacher vacancies across Scotland the week before the new school year started in August.

A breakdown of the data shows that as of August 9, primary schools were missing 388 teachers and there were 341 vacancies across Scotland’s secondary schools.

Argyll and Bute Council reported 200 teaching vacancies, while Aberdeen City was missing 86 full-time-equivalent teachers.

Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesman Tavish Scott MSP said: “Thousands of pupils faced the prospect of going back to school without a dedicated class teacher in place.

“The SNP came to power on a promise to cut class sizes, but they have gone up.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We are spending £88 million this year to make sure every school has access to the right number of teachers.

“Teacher vacancies arise across Scottish local authorities continuously throughout the year.

“These figures represent less than 1.5% of the total workforce and in the time since they were compiled many of these vacancies will have been filled.”