Several Scottish councils are warning they are finding it hard to recruit new science, technology and maths teachers.
A number have told BBC Scotland they have had fewer applications for teaching posts in these subjects than they had hoped for.In some cases it has been impossible to fill posts and as a result courses or subjects have been dropped.
Scotland's largest teachers' union, the EIS, said any unfilled vacancy was a cause for concern.
Official statistics from December last year said there were 48,746 teachers in Scottish schools.
BBC Scotland asked all 32 councils across Scotland how many vacancies for teachers they had when the new school term began two weeks ago.
Nationally the total - which includes primary teachers, secondary teachers and heads - came to more than 680.
Almost half were for secondary school teachers.
While some councils had relatively few vacancies and did not believe they had an overall problem, others had experienced some difficulties finding applicants.
Many councils stressed that they did not regard teacher recruitment as a problem overall and were confident most current vacancies would be filled quickly.
But several, including Fife, North Lanarkshire and Moray, highlighted difficulties they have had attracting applicants in science, maths and technology. Some also pinpointed home economics as a challenge.
Meanwhile, the Scottish government is launching the latest phase of its campaign to encourage more people to train as teachers. Students of home economics are among those now being specifically targeted.
Launching the new phase of the Teaching Makes People campaign, Deputy First Minister John Swinney said: "This government's investment has resulted in 253 more teachers last year. However, I recognise that some local authorities are facing challenges recruiting the right number of teachers for their classrooms.
"That is why we are expanding our successful Teaching Makes People campaign which highlights the opportunity for a hugely rewarding and inspiring career with the chance to make a real difference in the lives of children and young people."
The councils who have noted difficulties in specific subject areas include:
- Scottish Borders, who highlighted the challenges they had faced filling vacancies in Maths, Business Studies, Home Economics, Physics, Computing and technical subjects.
- Fife noted that what it called a "national shortage" was particularly acute in English, Maths, Home Economics, Business Education and Computing.
- Highland said it was difficult to recruit to all the STEM subjects especially Maths
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