Scotland’s largest education authority is bucking the jobs dearth of recent years and advertising 80 posts for permanent full-time primary teachers next week.

The last time the council advertised primary jobs on such a scale was five years ago.

A handful of nursery teachers are also needed along with part-time primary teachers to do job-shares.

The primary roll across Glasgow schools has risen by about 300, which is one of the factors in the city’s recruitment drive.

Glasgow City Council’s human resources manager, Mary Arthur, told TESS that the city was only looking for 20 permanent secondary teachers - mainly in the sciences, home economics and religious education for both the denominational and non-denominational sectors.

The council was being cautious in its workforce planning for secondary, she said, because Curriculum for Excellence might lead pupils to choose different subjects from hitherto.

Mrs Arthur advised secondary teachers to equip themselves with dual qualifications so that they were more flexible in the subjects they could teach under CfE, notably chemistry and biology; maths and computing; business education and computing; English and drama; and various modern languages combinations.

Glasgow had in recent years restructured its permanent supply pools of around 100 primary and 100 secondary teachers to place as many as possible in permanent posts, she said.

Under its revised format, the secondary supply pool will be made up of subject specialists to cover every area of the curriculum, said Mrs Arthur.

“We have been suffering from a shortage in supply in some subjects. It is not desirable that children are taught by someone who is not a subject specialist leading up to an exam diet,” she said.

John Stodter, general secretary of the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland, said he did not believe Glasgow’s situation was typical of a national trend.

elizabeth.buie@tess.co.uk.