Primary schools in some areas of Scotland are struggling to attract applicants for vacant head teacher posts, research by the Scottish Conservatives has revealed.
In some councils last year, schools were receiving barely one application per vacancy.
Aberdeen, Clackmannanshire and South Ayrshire all received fewer than two submissions per empty post.
The Freedom of Information responses even revealed that, in 2013/14, Argyll and Bute council had only 14 people interested in 20 head teacher positions in primary schools.
Across Scotland, the ratio was 4.2 applications per vacancy.
Councils with the most interest in vacancies were South Lanarkshire (10.9), North Lanarkshire (6.9) and Perth and Kinross (5.2).
As of 2018/19, the Scottish Government wants all head teachers to sit a new masters qualification, with critics saying this is likely to make it even harder to attract people to the job.
Local Conservative candidate Jamie Greene said "There is a very clear disparity across Scotland when it comes to interest in primary head teacher posts. Ayrshire doesn’t fare well on this. In some areas, schools are getting barely one application per vacancy. Any industry would have concerns over that when it comes to competition for places, but the SNP administration seems blinkered on this problem."
Liz Smith, Scottish Conservative Young People spokesperson, added "The Scottish Government needs to ensure more teachers are encouraged to make the step up and aspire to a greater role. But instead, it wants to make life even more difficult by forcing would-be head teachers to undertake an additional qualification which - from the evidence provided to the Education Committee - suggests more, not fewer barriers could be put in the way of professional development.
"This shortage is already harming schools in some areas, and it seems this problem will only get worse."