A chronic lack of supply teachers is having an adverse impact upon schools across Dundee, the city council has admitted.
Education chiefs said they are facing “a challenging time” recruiting teachers to fill posts and are closely scrutinising numbers.
The amount available to both primary and secondary schools has reduced over the past 12 months in line with a national shortage.
The council’s education convener, Stewart Hunter said filling teaching roles both permanent and temporary had been a “big problem” for some time.
He believes positive progress is being made, however, and told The Courier that Dundee schools were “in a better position now than they were at the start of term”.
“There are still issues in a variety of schools and I know it will be a concern for parents as indeed it is for schools who want to provide the best possible education for their pupils,” he said.
“Things have improved and we hope to have a number of additional vacancies filled soon.
“I want to reassure parents that we are working hard towards increasing teacher numbers for the future.”
Despite the efforts being made, a lack of qualified supply teachers has seen lessons taken by staff with no training in the subject they are taking.
That has led to claims that pupil learning is being jeopardised and a call to action by parent groups concerned by the dearth of staff.
Members of Grove Academy Parent Council in Broughty Ferry are among those who have called for urgent action at a local and national level to address the shortage.
The parent council has written to the local authority and also intends to raise the issue with the Scottish Government.
Penny Lewis, a member of the parent council, said parents were concerned by reports that staff had been left in charge of classes in subjects for which they had no expertise, with one example at Grove said to have seen a PE teacher supervising science lessons.
Ms Lewis believes that poor pay is at the heart of the current classroom crisis.
“The rates at which supply teachers are paid have been changed, which means that even if you were trained as a senior teacher, you no longer get the same rate if you go into supply work as you did before,” she said.
A spokesman for the council said: “The education department closely monitors teacher numbers in all the city’s schools and takes prompt action to fill vacant posts but there is no doubt that the number of available teachers has reduced this year.”