Just days after concerns were expressed over the amount of classes being covered by supply teachers, a separate report has said that supply teacher numbers are dangerously low.

Several Scottish councils have told the BBC there has been a dramatic drop in the number of supply teachers registered locally, while Scotland's biggest teaching union - the EIS - responded by stating the situation is at crisis point.

EIS believes that the shortage is due to the reductions in supply teachers' remuneration and also the fact that teacher training graduates are now finding full-time secondary teaching jobs and are no longer available to cover lessons.

Stirling Council stated: "We are currently experiencing difficulty in the primary sector and also in with subject specialisms such physics, maths and home economics in secondary sector."

The union claims more than a third of supply requests from councils are not being met and it is the pupils who are losing out. General secretary Larry Flanagan said: "That means that pupils are not being taught by subject specialists or they're in extended assemblies or sometimes they're sitting in the canteen being supervised because no teacher is available."

Just this week, Welsh authorities claimed that an over-reliance on supply teachers was also detrimental to the quality of learning that students received, with the country looking to try and cut the number of lessons that are covered by temporary teaching staff to give children some consistency in their lessons.

Watchdog Estyn explained that supply teachers cannot know pupils and their learning habits as well as regular teachers and too often they set undemanding work that does not engage learners.

If you are looking for a teaching job or already work in a classroom what are your views on the subject of supply teachers? Do you know of any particularly good experiences your pupils have had with them? Would you be willing to consider a supply teacher role?