SCOTLAND’s stricken oil capital has warned it may be forced to close schools and disrupt the education of hundreds of pupils due chronic teacher shortages in the wake of the plummeting fortunes of the North Sea industry

Angela Taylor, Convener of Aberdeen City Council's Education and Children’s Services, said that the local authority may have no choice to shut the gates of a string of schools if the number of teacher vacancies continues to grow.

Last month it emerged that there 134 empty teaching positions in the Granite City, double the number there were eight months ago. Primary schools the worst hit with 68 vacancies, and it is understood that these would be the chief target of any closures.

Councillor Taylor blamed the downturn in the Oil and Gas industry, which has seen 10,000 jobs leave the north east since 2014.

Many teachers have family ties to those working in the North Sea or onshore, and have left with them as they travel south to find work.

The education boss also accused the Scottish Government of leaving Aberdeen to “twist in the wind” as the crisis has deepened, after its £12 million recruitment drive delivering “precious little” to mitigate the problem.

Councillor Taylor said: “This is a national problem but there is no doubt that Aberdeen is a special case because of the high cost of living plus the oil and gas crisis. We have evidence that many of those losing their jobs are married to teachers and being forced to move to other parts of the country to look for work.

“The First Minister seems to concede that this city is a special case but as far as I’m concerned, Aberdeen is being left to twist in the wind given the precious little support we have been given.

“The SNP Government needs to act decisively and provide a meaningful package of emergency measures which will bring about genuine change."

Councillor Taylor said she had written to new Education Secretary John Swinney calling for face-to-face crisis talks, but that he had declined the Labour-led administration’s request for a meeting.

She added: “We are in the process of delivering the biggest regeneration programme in the city’s history but to make that count we need to develop the skills of the next generation.

“How are we supposed to do that when we don’t have the required number of teachers to make a difference?

“What makes it worse is that we don’t have the support of the local SNP Group at Aberdeen City Council. At a recent meeting of full council they basically took a position of ‘crisis, what crisis?’ and insisted Aberdeen was not a special case."

Councillor Taylor added: “This is incredibly worrying as we suspect that the local SNP Group reflects the views of the SNP Government – and judging by the lack of action from the First Minister, we are right to fear the worst.

“The Government’s manifesto claims that education is a priority for them – but without meaningful action to back up that claim, these are little more than weasel words and, as things stand, Aberdeen remains the SNP’s ‘forgotten city’.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said that Education Secretary Mr Swinney would now meet for crisis talks with education directors, head teachers and teachers in Aberdeen and elsewhere in the North East on Monday.

He added: “We want all schools to have access to the right number of teachers with the right skills so every child in every community has the opportunity to fulfil their potential.

“Last year we invested £51m to safeguard teacher posts and increased student teacher numbers in each of the last five years, specifically targeting places at the University of Aberdeen.

“Through the Transition Training Fund we are committed to helping oil and gas sector staff move to a career in teaching, particularly in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects; and we are supporting the University of Aberdeen’s distance learning teacher education programme, which allows council employees to retrain as teachers while staying in work."