SCOTLAND needs a national taskforce to halt crippling teacher shortages across the country, council leaders have said.

The call from seven local authorities comes after a joint summit in Aberdeen to address the long-running issue.

Officials from Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Moray, the Highlands, the Western Isles, the Orkney Islands and the Shetland Islands want to see a national plan developed by the Scottish Government to increase the number of teachers available.

Proposals include higher salaries for those prepared to move north and an expansion of teacher training courses at Aberdeen University and the University of the Highlands and Islands to improve the local supply of school staff.

Jenny Laing, leader of Aberdeen City Council, said the concerns had been raised directly with Angela Constance, the Education Secretary, who attending the summit.

She said: "We are concerned about continuing to raise attainment while we face the current challenges in recruiting teachers and want the minister to consider possible solutions at national and local level to support us at a time of unprecedented low numbers of applicants and increased pupil numbers.

"The priority has to be the establishment of a nationally-supported taskforce to agree an action plan for the region and we also ask that consideration is given to a weighting system for the recruitment of public sector workers similar to the weighting allowance for London.

"Consideration must also be given to addressing the annual budget settlement for authorities in the north to reflect these challenges."

The councils involved have already tried to attract greater numbers of teachers by offering so-called "Golden Hello" payments and free accommodation to new teachers.

But recent figures showed in Aberdeen alone there were currently vacancies for 36 primary teachers, 4 Additional Support Needs teachers and 19 secondary school vacancies.

At headteacher level there are nine vacant primary school posts, equating to about 20 per cent of primary heads, and two secondary school heads.

Ms Constance said the Scottish Government had already launched a recruitment campaign for teachers which would benefit councils with shortages.

She said: "A national marketing campaign to attract more people into teaching will be targeted in areas which need extra help to recruit teachers, particularly in hard to fill subjects such as science, technology, engineering and maths.

"It’s clear from the summit that there is some interesting work across our rural and north east communities to ensure the right teachers are recruited and I will continue to support these efforts closely.

“The Scottish Government will continue to work together with local government to find realistic long-term solutions to support all of our schools and pupils in every community in Scotland.”

The six local authorities combined have recently spent about £1million on advertising and have launched a number of initiatives which have included innovative financial incentive packages and housing support.