Data on teacher vacancies has not been collected by the Scottish Government since September 2016, parliamentary questions have revealed.
North-east MSP Mike Rumbles said the failure to monitor the situation centrally showed “a shameful lack of interest” in the recruitment crisis.
The Liberal Democrat had asked education secretary John Swinney for details of how many gaps there were in north-east classrooms and what action was being taken to fill them.
Mr Swinney responded with teacher vacancy numbers for September 2016 and said the Scottish Government “does not collect formal statistics on teacher vacancies”.
“However, to strengthen the annual teacher workforce planning exercise for 2017-18, councils were asked to provide teacher vacancy numbers as at 21 September 2016,” he added.
“This information was collected solely for the purpose of informing the annual teacher workforce planning exercise and is a snapshot of the teacher vacancy situation.”
Mr Rumbles said Mr Swinney should be keeping a closer watch.
“The Scottish Government has shown a shameful lack of interest in the state of our education system in the north-east,” he said.
“The figures provided by the Minister on teacher vacancies are almost a year old — it beggars belief.”
Mr Rumbles said education could not be the Scottish Government’s top priority if basic checks were not being completed.
He said: “Our education system in Scotland, under this inept government, has been at breaking point for some time.
“The First Minister has promised that improving the situation is at the top of her government’s list of priorities but it will come as no surprise to many to find out it was all bluster and very little substance.
“It is no wonder so few in the north-east will be prepared to take the Scottish Government’s promises seriously if it does not even hold the most basic information on teaching and education.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “We collect and publish information on teacher numbers annually.
“Although teacher recruitment is a matter for local authorities, we recognise some areas have faced challenges filling vacancies, which is why we have taken decisive action to recruit and retain teachers.
“This includes investing £88million this year alone so every school has access to the right number of teachers. This investment has enabled local authorities to maintain the pupil teacher ratio and halted a period of steady decline in teacher recruitment by councils, resulting in 253 more teachers last year – the first substantial increase since 2007.
“We are also investing an additional £3 million to train an extra 371 teachers in 2017/18 and we have supported 12 oil and gas workers to become STEM (science, technology, engineering or maths) teachers in the Aberdeen area as part of our £12 million Transition Training Fund.”