Angus education committee figures have clashed over renewed claims of a staffing crisis in the area’s secondaries.
Former head teacher David May said he fears attainment will slip due to a lack of teachers in key subjects at Angus schools and believes the rural authority will continue to struggle to fill vacant posts.
But the area’s education convener has dismissed the crisis claim and said that some schools have no staff gaps at all.
The issue was raised in the wake of an update report to Angus children and learning committee on teacher numbers, which Mr May said highlighted gaps in secondary provision.
He said: “I appreciate the huge efforts which have been made by the director and her staff as this has helped alleviate most of the primary school shortages we had, but these long-term shortages in secondary schools are a major problem.
“We are 16 subject teachers down in the secondary sector from what we need and this must impact on pupil attainment as this shortage has continued for several months.
“Shortages in subject teachers is also bound to mean that our young people in these schools will have less choice of subjects in fourth, fifth and sixth year and I have already heard that some courses might not be offered next year as there may not be enough subject teachers.
“I’m also looking at the subject shortages in the key stem subjects of maths, science and technical.”
He added: “The SNP national policy of insisting on retaining teacher numbers even when the roll in an authority area is falling has quite obviously contributed to the lack of teachers being available to our schools in Angus.
“This has meant there is less movement between authorities than could have taken place and has made teacher recruitment for us very difficult.
“The cut in the pay for supply teachers imposed by the Scottish Government has, in the view of many staff, meant it is not worthwhile financially to do supply teaching.
“This is especially true as we are a rural authority and costs of travel have to be taken into account by potential supply teachers.”
Committee convener Mrs Welsh said: “I honestly can’t say that we have a crisis. We have schools where there are no shortages at all and schools where there are only one or two teachers missing.
“On average it is two teachers down and I would not call that a crisis.
“I don’t think the problem is the lack of teacher training, it is the lack of STEM subject graduates coming through because there is better remuneration elsewhere.
“We are growing our own teachers where we can, and will continue to advertise for the shortages, but I don’t think there is any simple blame, it is the result of a lot of circumstances.”