More new teachers are unable to find full time jobs

A General Teaching Council survey suggests that only 49.4% of the teachers polled last October were in full-time employment.

Two years ago almost 67% held full-time posts.

However the Scottish Government said that there were 700 teacher vacancies across the country at present.

Teachers' unions accept there are areas that fail to attract new teachers but they say it is not as easy to move around as it was in the past because people going into teaching now often have families and it is difficult to up-root them.

In 2001, Jack McConnell, the then education minister, set out to recruit 3,000 extra teachers for Scotland.

Supply teachers

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland, the General Secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association David Eaglesham said: "Less than half of the total number of those who qualified the previous year are actually in full-time permanent employment.

"A very large and increasing number are now on supply contracts which is temporary casual work where there is no guarantee of anything.

"No guarantee of establishing yourself in a job, no guarantee of your getting a mortgage or anything else. It's not a position we expected to find in 2001 when we agreed to this."

In a statement the Scottish Government said that a commitment to reduce class sizes through extra investment would increase the number of teachers in future.