Individuals in teaching jobs in Scotland spend more time in the classroom than any of their counterparts in the western world.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), teachers in the country spend 60 per cent of their working hours in the classroom.

Indeed, the study found that school staff in the country spend an average of 855 hours a year teaching, more than any other country apart from New Zealand, Mexico and the United States.

In addition, the report by the OECD found that classroom teachers in Scotland were the eighth best paid in the developed world.

Ronnie Smith, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland, told Herald Scotland: "The amount of time that Scottish teachers spend actually teaching classes has come under misinformed attack in recent weeks.

"As this publication clearly shows, in no other country do teachers spend more of their working day teaching classes than in Scotland, yet Scotland continues to rank far lower in terms of the salaries paid to our teachers."

Capita, the UK's leading supply teaching agency.