Secondary school head teachers are facing difficulties in recruiting teachers due to a lack of suitable applicants.

The problem is most noticeable in Welsh-language medium schools, according to a report published on Monday by the General Teaching Council for Wales (GTCW).

In contrast, primary school positions attract an average of 20 applicants per post, more than three times the amount responding to comprehensive jobs.

The report was compiled from responses from nearly 1,500 headteachers in Wales and shows the average numbers of applicants for "shortage" subjects has dropped even further.

The survey showed there were on average:

• 4.2 applicants for maths jobs
• 4.7 for science
• 3.8 for physics
• 2.7 for Welsh as a second language.

Only the figures for physics jobs had not fallen since last year.

The biggest drop overall was in science, which saw applications fall from 7.5 applicants per post.

The GTCW report also showed about one in 10 posts remained unfilled because of a shortage of applicants.

The most acute lack of teachers is in Welsh medium education, where there are shortages in almost every subject area.

It is vital that we get to grips with the recruitment problems head teachers face Gary Brace, GTCW

Compulsory education to the age of 16 in Welsh means schools are scrambling to find properly trained Welsh language teachers.

In a number of schools, teachers from different subject areas such as science are teaching Welsh simply because they are Welsh speakers.

BBC Wales' education correspondent Colette Hume noted another trend - newly qualified teachers being headhunted by the private sector.

"A lot of companies are asking for people that have PGCE qualifications, which is becoming more attractive to employers," she explained.

Education chiefs will discuss the report at a landmark conference in Cardiff called to help find solutions to the problem of teacher supply and demand.

Secondary head teachers said they have had to resort to poaching, head hunting or other "innovative" means to fill vacant posts.

Gary Brace, chief executive of the teaching council, said: "It is vital that we get to grips with the recruitment problems head teachers face.

Problems are worse for Welsh education

"Clearly heads don't believe they have enough choice of applicants to make the appointments they want.

"In some cases, they had no choices at all.

"At the conference, we will be talking about solutions which make the teaching profession generally more attractive, but the solution to these problems must come from many sources."

Almost half the teachers who leave the profession are taking early retirement, while only 16% of secondary teachers and eight per cent of primary teachers went to jobs outside the profession.

Primary schools tended to have a stable workforce, with no vacancies in 67% of schools between January and August 2002.

There were large numbers of candidates for every job which did become available, the report found.