STAFFING problems are hindering the progress of Beath and Lochgelly High Schools.

Beath's rector, Douglas Young, said that there were four departments where there are vacancies and Wendy Petty, the deputy head at Lochgelly, reported similar problems.

Cowdenbeath Area Committee heard on Wednesday that both the secondary schools were making excellent progress, but staffing shortages continued to plague both of them.

Mr Young said: "Our results have shown improvement over the past five years and the aim is to keep this upward curve progressing.

"However, staffing has remained a concern throughout the session with shortages in Design, Maths, English and Business Information Technology.

"It is a really frustrating situation but we continue to seek candidates for every space we have."

Ms Petty said: "Last year Lochgelly High had the best results ever recorded by the school and our intentions for 2018 is to try and improve on that.

"We also have staffing problems of our own but we too are trying to fill the gaps and meantime the team at LHS is totally committed to ensuring that our results continue to hit the upward trend."

The committee members were very concerned about the staffing issue and Councillor Alex Campbell said: "Teacher involvement is so important at any school in inspiring the pupils to achieve their best. Hopefully the gaps can be filled as soon as possible at both our schools."

Councillor Gary Guichan agreed and chair Linda Erskine hoped that people to fill the local vacancies can be found quickly.

Kevin Funnell, Fife Council Education Department Operations Team Manager said: "There is a recognised shortage of teachers across Scotland and we are doing all we can to mitigate the impact of that on Fife's schools and pupils.

"We currently have 56 full time equivalent vacancies across all sectors. We employ some 4,200 teachers in Fife schools so the current vacancy level is a very low percentage of our overall staffing complement, however, the number of vacancies is slightly higher than we would normally expect, reflecting the national position.

"We're actively recruiting teachers, taking every opportunity to advertise positions and attract more teachers to Fife."