Teaching in Scotland needs to be promoted as a worthwhile and desirable career to help tackle shortages, a senior education figure has said.
Ken Muir, chief executive of the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) said there is no silver bullet deal with shortfalls, but attracting people to change career and enticing teachers back from lucrative overseas posts is key.
More than a fifth of the around 73,000 teachers on the GTCS register are currently not teaching.
Speaking ahead of a new Scottish Government teacher recruitment campaign being launched on Wednesday, Mr Muir said: "Tomorrow is a good stepping stone towards trying to resolve the problem, but I don't think any one thing will resolve teacher shortages.
"All the organisations need to try and come together to make sure that teaching in Scotland is seen as a worthwhile and desirable career.
"We need high-quality teachers in front of children in Scotland if we are going to tackle some of the Government policy areas."
He said there are currently around 2,000 teachers on the register who are working overseas, particularly in the Far East and Middle East where in some cases they can earn almost double the £22,000 starting salary of a trainee in Scotland.
He added: "What we've seen over the past decade in Scotland has been a shift towards teachers, like many other young professionals, attracted to other areas and we know many of them want to come back."
He said supporting their return would help close gaps in classroom provision, as would targeting people who want to change career, retired teachers, and trainees from overseas in areas where there are a surplus, as analysis indicates relying on the more traditional routes means "it would be difficult to satisfy demand in places for capacity".
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