MORE than £2 million could be withheld from Inverclyde's cash-strapped schools amid an ongoing row over teacher numbers.

Education secretary Jenny Gilruth has said she will not hand out £145.5m worth of funding to all of Scotland’s councils until she secures a commitment from them to maintain the number of teachers working in their districts.

Inverclyde Council leader Stephen McCabe told the Telegraph that his local authority could be left with a huge hole in its budget if ministers decide not to hand over the area’s share of the cash - but insisted he was hopeful officers could make the case for the area to be given the funding.

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An Inverclyde Council spokesperson confirmed that the authority's share of the £145.5m was £2.119m, and said that while the local authority had submitted census figures, on which the funding is based, it is yet to have any discussions with the Scottish Government about the matter.  

In recent months, Ms Gilruth has warned councils that she would take action if teacher numbers were reduced.

Councillor McCabe said that while Inverclyde Council’s teacher numbers were likely to be lower this year compared to the year before, he was optimistic that officers could show that the drop was due to ‘legitimate’ reasons.

He said: “Our Scottish Attainment Challenge money has fallen and we can argue that some of the reduction in teachers is due to that.

“We’re also getting less overall grant from the government because our school rolls are falling.

“We’re in a situation where once the government’s analysed our census return for 2024 and compared that to our census return for 2023, they’ll probably want a discussion with us and ask us why our numbers have reduced.

“We’ll provide the explanations and we hope that they’ll say they’re legitimate reasons and they’re going to give us the money.

“If they were to say they didn’t think they were legitimate reasons then clearly there’s a financial hole for us to address, it could be up to £2.1m.”

Jim Clocherty, convenor of the council’s education and communities committee, criticised the Scottish Government’s focus on maintaining teacher numbers.

He added: “What I would expect our education officers to be able to say is that they are convinced that the outcomes for our young people are as good as they’ll ever be.

“Young people are getting a fantastic education in Inverclyde in really good schools, and our teachers do a fantastic job.

“I think the big problem is that this should be outcome focussed, rather than strictly being based on numbers.

“It seems a very blunt tool to use."