Fresh posts are being created to help develop education

A series of new principal teacher jobs has been created in an effort to improve promotion prospects.

Details of the drive to develop Gaelic education were given by the Education Minister Peter Peacock to mark what could be a new era of expansion.

The �1,500 annual fee for part-time training courses was to be scrapped.

'Too successful'

Officials of the General Teaching Council for Scotland insisted the country's Gaelic medium units were a victim of their own success.

They said many more teachers were needed to keep up with demand.

The first Gaelic unit in Scotland opened 20 years ago in Tollcross, Edinburgh, with just a handful of pupils.

Now there are 2,500 pupils across the country becoming bilingual.

MSPs earlier this year unanimously gave their support to the Gaelic Language Bill, giving the tongue official status.

The legislation created a new quango, B�rd na G�idhlig, to oversee the development of Gaelic and secure its status as an official language.