The Bermuda Union of Teachers (BUT) has urged the Ministry of Education to employ permanent substitute teachers to help meet the daily shortfall of staff in the Island's public schools.

General secretary Michael Charles said discussions had been held to find new ways to ensure that substitute teachers were on hand when full-time workers were unable to attend.

He said the issue had always proved to be a great problem, but said he believed it was getting worse.

Mr. Charles said that at one time, there were about 600 teachers in the public system, but now there were more than 800.

The more teachers there are, he said, the more teachers there were to be off, and therefore a greater number of stand-in teachers were required.

But he said, at the moment, many principals were finding it increasingly difficult to find substitute teachers as and when they were needed.

When called at home, he said many have already been snapped up by other short-staffed schools, and some may be unable to turn out because of the short notice.

"This is a great problem and how do we solve the problem, especially at a time when there is a shortage of teachers, anyway," said Mr. Charles.

"There is no easy answer, but one of the solutions we have talked about is possibly having a number of substitute teachers on a retainer and paid to actually turn up at schools on a certain number of set days.

"They would be employed, so would have to arrive at school. The larger schools are always having to look for substitute teachers on most days, anyway, so it is highly likely they would be needed.

"However, if for some reason they were not needed as substitutes, there are many other things they could do, for example, one-on-one reading with students."

And Mr. Charles said even if the Ministry employed only 20 or 30 permanent substitute teachers, it would go some way towards the daily need for stand-in tutors.

He added: "I would think that CedarBridge and Berkeley could have a group of substitute teachers attached to them individually, but then maybe one or two people could be attached to a small cluster of primary schools.

"The arrangement could be that they turn out to a particular primary school or middle school, but are available, should they be needed, to attend a group of other schools which are very close by.

"This may not solve the whole problem of substitutes teachers, but it would go somewhere towards it and would reduce the amount of time a principal or deputy had to spend each morning looking for people."

Mr. Charles said he did not know whether the Ministry and principals were in favour of the idea, but said they were looking at it as an option.

Education Minister Paula Cox would not be drawn on any particular solutions, but said the issue was being looked at.

She said: "Principals have raised concerns with us about the existing system for getting substitute teachers.

"In response to these concerns, we are in discussions with the BUT about ways in which we might be able to improve the system and ensure that schools are quickly and easily able to find substitutes when they are needed."

However, she said, at this stage in the year, the Ministry could only make changes that it could afford.

She added: "Various options are being considered, but no decisions have been taken and any improvements will need to be made within the existing budget for substitutes."

One head teacher, who did not wish to be named last night, said she believed making some substitute teachers permanent, retained staff would help to solve the problems.

She said; "I know that the deputy principal can spend hours trying to find substitute teachers, so having someone on hand every day would help.

"Some of the substitute teachers on the list we don't want to be in our school, so we like to be selective, and, of course, that narrows it down even more.

"I'm sure that having floating teachers, if you like, would certainly help. It would reduce the amount of time we have to spend trying to find people to stand in."

But Livingston Tuzo, chairman of the Association of School Principals and head teacher of West End Primary School, said he believed the problem was in the quality of substitute teachers and not the quantity.

He said: "The quality of substitutes is the real issue. There are simply not enough quality substitute teachers, and that is another concern among principals."