HUNDREDS of new teachers employed in Scottish schools under a scheme to close the attainment gap between rich and poor are only on temporary contracts.

New figures show 44 per cent of the 1,000 teachers recruited under the Scottish Attainment Fund don't have permanent contracts - raising fears over job security and the long-term effectiveness of the project.

In some councils including Aberdeen, Argyll and Bute, Dumfries and Galloway, Falkirk, Inverclyde and South Ayrshire over three quarters of the new posts are temporary.

Opposition politicians and teaching unions said the figures raised concerns over whether the Scottish Government scheme was a “quick fix” which masked serious underlying problems of recruitment and retention of teachers.

Launched in 2015 by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, the £750 million Scottish Attainment Fund aims to target resources at councils serving areas with the greatest concentrations of disadvantaged pupils. The initiative includes the Pupil Equity Fund, which targets money directly to schools and can be used at the discretion of headteachers.

In December, John Swinney, the Education Secretary, welcomed figures showing hundreds of new staff were employed as a result - with overall teacher numbers rising to 51,138 after an increase of 447 from the previous year.

Ross Greer, education spokesman for the Scottish Green Party, which revealed the latest figures, said the temporary nature of contracts for many new staff amounted to "smoke and mirrors".

He said: "Teaching posts created through attainment funding are, by the government’s own rules, not replacements for the thousands of core teaching staff cut over recent years. Now we find that the number and proportion of these posts which are temporary has gone up.

"Despite the SNP’s smoke and mirrors routine, this is just not what our schools need. Headteachers are unable to plan ahead due to funding uncertainty and skilled staff are left in insecure positions, which will only make the major issues of teacher retention even harder to solve.

“This is a paper-over-the-cracks arrangement by ministers. They know it does not compensate for a decade of funding cuts and the resulting loss of permanent teachers and additional support needs staff."

Mr Greer called on the Scottish Government to end the "hand to mouth" funding arrangements for councils and schools.

Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland teaching union, also attacked the temporary nature of the contracts.

He said: "The EIS has repeatedly raised concerns over the temporary nature of many teaching posts funded through Pupil Equity Funding.

"These posts, valuable though they are, are short-term only and so not guaranteed to be retained in future years. These posts were always intended to be additional resource on top of the existing teacher workforce, and cannot be viewed as a replacement for permanent teaching posts.”

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “We would encourage local authorities to employ teachers on full-time contracts and have given an absolute commitment to the Attainment Scotland fund over this parliamentary session.

“There is obviously regular turnover within the teaching profession. Vacancies arise and can be filled as and when they do and the arguments to make more of those posts permanent are compelling.

“We are pleased however, to see progress made with the recruitment of 962 full-time equivalent teachers through the attainment Scotland fund. This contributed to the increase in teacher numbers of 447 we saw last year, which was a welcome increase to the teaching profession in Scotland.”

A spokesman for council umbrella body Cosla said: "This is a perfect illustration of why the Pupil Equity Fund gives neither councils nor employees the security we need.

"It is short term funding which is only guaranteed until the end of this parliament and yet the services it provides have become an essential and core component of our work in improving attainment and closing the attainment gap."