As part of a recent agreement on conditions of service, each education authority will be reviewing their use of temporary contracts

Helen Law, Cosla

He said: "It would appear from this survey that the growing use of such contracts means that women teachers in particular are affected.

"The fact that around half of all respondents are in temporary posts due to a shortage of permanent teaching opportunities is discriminatory in that it is mostly women who are affected.

"We would urge the relevant authorities to look very closely at the reasons behind these findings and, as a matter or urgency, authorities should look at ways of ensuring more permanent posts for teachers."

The EIS sent questionnaires to more than 6,000 teachers on temporary contracts and received 2,128 replies. Of those, 1,820 were women and only 308 were men.

The Scottish Executive is currently in the midst of a major campaign to attract more people into the teaching profession.

'Stable environment'

Mr Smith said this, coupled with the findings of the survey, showed that the need for more permanent teaching posts would grow in the future.

He added: "We must ensure that teachers have a stable environment in which to work for the good of education and pupils in Scottish schools.

"Only by ensuring that there are sufficient numbers of teachers in secure positions can we provide the right environment for learning and teaching in Scotland's schools and make teaching attractive as a career for graduates."

More than 2,000 teachers responded to the survey

But Helen Law, education spokeswoman for local authority umbrella group Cosla, said moves were already afoot to look at the use of temporary teaching contracts.

She said: "As part of a recent agreement on conditions of service, each education authority will be reviewing their use of temporary contracts.

"High quality training is clearly important for the temporary workforce and this is why education authorities are introducing one year induction/training posts for all newly qualified teachers.

"These will provide a stable environment in which newly qualified teachers are able to work and this can only be for the good of education and Scotland's schoolchildren."