A task force is being established to attract head teachers to the Highlands in order to stave off a “significant risk” to pupils’ education.
There are currently 20 vacancies and councillors heard yesterday that teachers want urgent action to attract recruits to the north.
There was widespread acknowledgement of the problem among education committee members meeting in Inverness, but little sign of a speedy solution to a complex issue.
Dingwall and Seaforth councillor Graham MacKenzie, who was head at Alness and and Dingwall academies’ over a period of 18 years, said it was “sad that we don’t have enough applicants to have quality leads in some places”.
He urged the department to consider suitable existing staff if the council fails to improve recruitment and suggested targeting aspiring local candidates from an earlier stage in their careers.
Highland education director Bill Alexander said he was reassured “by the wonderful people we have managing schools” but also “struck by the fact that they do not believe we support them in that task and often some of what we do in the council actually hinders them in their task”.
He conceded that while reviews had been carried out, the recruitment problem may have worsened.
The remote nature and small sizes of many Highland schools, he believes, are major factors.
And he warned of “significant risks” to the council and youngsters’ education if the challenges are not addressed.
Almost half of the 20 jobs have been re-advertised on at least one occasion.
The committee agreed with a suggestion from Councillor Drew Millar that a cross-party group of councillors should meet with the director and thrash out how best to tackle the crisis and report back to colleagues in August.
Councillor Fiona Robertson, Tain and Easter Ross, said that during a recent recruitment workshop in Dingwall, a number of staff spoke of their frustration of spending 80% of their time on administrative tasks rather than teaching.
The council’s deputy convener Maxine Smith said that recruitment was not exclusively a Highland problem. She suggested an overhaul to streamline the ever evolving role of head teacher to revert the focus from managerial responsibilities to “teaching and learning”.
She also mooted the idea of offering free accommodation for first three years as an incentive to attract experienced staff.