PARENTS have backed moves to relax the rules on joining the Scottish teaching profession.

The Scottish Parent Teacher Council (SPTC) said the development would help schools fill vacancies.

Under the new rules classroom staff who have qualified outside the country will now be allowed to work in a school immediately under a new conditional registration.

People who secure a job in this way will be put on probation while they complete any additional studies or training required for full registration, a legal requirement.

The General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS), which receives several hundred applications from outside the country every year, said the new flexibility would ensure teacher quality while allowing schools to plug vacancies.

Eileen Prior, executive director of the SPTC said: "The shortages of teachers in Scotland is something parents have raised as a concern with us for some time.

"We have heard of a number of issues surrounding teacher employment with shortages within specific subject areas, problems with registration and challenges in particular geographic areas.

"We are pleased to see the GTCS has implemented a common sense measure to lessen the restrictions on teachers and we are in favour of this fresh approach."

The move comes after a number of councils in rural areas have complained of crippling teacher shortages, with concerns the current registration process for teachers who have been working outside Scotland can be lengthy and inflexible.

Last year, seven local authorities called for a national taskforce to halt shortages including Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Moray, the Highlands and the Western Isles.

There have also been concerns over shortages of specialist teachers in key subjects such as mathematics, physics and computing with Scottish Government targets for training places not being filled.

The GTCS was also forced to act after a landmark legal ruling in 2014 found a science teacher from England had been wrongly prevented from working north of the Border because he lacked a degree.

The teacher successfully argued that his graduation from the Royal Society of Chemistry was the equivalent of a degree and the GTCS accepted it would have to more flexible in future over qualifications achieved by prospective teachers.