The real cost may even be higher, as East Lothian, East Renfrewshire and Midlothian Councils were unable to provide details of their spend.
The Scottish Conservatives have hit out at the SNP over the figures, which they say is a result of prolonged underrecruitment.
Shadow education secretary Miles Briggs said the situation was ‘unsustainable’.
He said: “These eye-watering figures expose yet another example of SNP incompetence in managing Scotland’s education.
“Reliance on supply teachers has ballooned under the SNP because they have failed to recruit and retain enough full-time teachers – leaving pupils facing disruption and taxpayers footing an ever-growing bill.
“Despite their promise to increase teacher numbers, they have fallen, while cuts have reduced the number of newly qualified teachers being given full-time posts.”
55,100 teachers were employed in 2007, when the SNP came to power. In 2024, this number had dipped to 53,412; a decrease of three percent.
Briggs added: “With fewer people entering the profession and more driven out, the SNP has made teaching in Scotland increasingly unsustainable.”
Figures released yesterday revealed that Glasgow City Council spent £11m on supply teachers last year, the highest amount across Scotland’s 32 local authorities; as well as £4.9m on agency workers in the council’s neighbourhood, regeneration, and sustainability service and £5.2m on health and social care workers.
A council report stated: “This was to maintain staffing levels due to absence or whilst posts were being recruited to, however a split between them is not available.
“The costs of the agency equated to around four per cent of the total employee cost budgets for these areas. The costs of the agency were managed within this budget for 2024 to 2025.”
“A level of supply is necessary and to be expected across the teaching workforce, taking into account issues that affect every part of the workforce such as sickness absence and maternity leave.
A COSLA spokesperson told The Herald that local governments spend around £4.3 billion teacher pay each year.
They commented: “To put the £75m figure in context, Local Government spends around £4.3 billion on the teacher pay bill annually and the increase in spend across the board (including in supply) can largely be attributed to pay awards since 2021/22. Taking this into account, the real-terms increase may only be around £1.1m.
“Councils carefully consider their workforce numbers based on the needs of their communities, and in this case, schools. Teachers play a vital role in learning, alongside the wider school and local authority workforce – in partnership with other professions and organisations.
“A range of support is required for children and young people to be able to learn and thrive therefore we cannot view one part of the workforce in isolation.”
A spokesperson for the Scottish Government said: “Although teacher recruitment is a matter for local authorities, education is a key priority for this Government’s which is why we are taking decisive action and investing heavily to help recruit and retain teachers.
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“Over the past ten years the number of teachers in permanent posts has remained stable at over 80%, and since 2014 the number of school teachers in post has increased by 8%, from 49,521 to 53,331 as of December 2023.
“In addition, we are providing local authorities with increased funding of £186.5 million to protect teacher numbers, alongside an additional £28 million to support the recruitment and retention of the ASN workforce.”