TEACHING unions are at loggerheads with North-East education bosses over staff vacancies.

As some estimates put the national shortage at close to 5,000, two North-East education authorities said they are fully staffed, just days before youngsters return to school.

The two authorities, Middlesbrough and Gateshead, said they had no teacher vacancies while Redcar and Cleveland reported having one vacancy.

But The Northern Echo has learnt that two schools in Middlesbrough are in need of a full-time science teacher and a part-time information technology (IT) teacher.

The headteacher of Keldholme School, Ron Newitt, has been interviewing prospective staff for a science post. Mr Newitt is also headteacher of Langbaurgh School, which needs a part-time IT teacher.

Mr Newitt said: "Hopefully we have filled the science post. I have no idea how they thought we had filled all the vacancies."

Terry Buckler, north regional secretary for the National Union of Teachers, said: "I don't think the figures reflect the real picture.

"I would also question how many posts are filled with teachers who are teaching their second subject, or do not know the subject at all."

Dave Jones, assistant director of education at Sunderland, said the authority had 51 vacancies and he considered it impossible for a council to have none.

While there would be no classrooms in the city without teachers, he only counted a post as full if it was filled with a permanent member of staff.

"They must have some posts that are not filled with a permanent replacement," he said.

Paul Heiser, human resources officer for Middlesbrough Borough Council, said it was not disguising figures.

"As far as we are aware, we are fully staffed for the start of the new term," he said.

A spokeswoman for Gateshead Borough Council said it did not generally have a problem filling vacancies, while a Redcar and Cleveland spokesman said there was a dearth of qualified supply teachers, "but I would not go down the road that we are covering anything up".