MORE than two third of Scottish councils are prepared to sign up to a controversial deal to protect teacher numbers.

It is understood more than 20 of the country's 32 local authorities have agreed in principle to protect the number of teachers they employ in return for additional funding.

Cosla, the umbrella body for councils, has vociferously opposed the policy and took the first steps towards legal action last week.

However, if councils sign up to the offer from Finance Secretary John Swinney any threat of legal action would be significantly weakened.

The row erupted earlier this month after Mr Swinney blamed local authorities for breaking an SNP promise on teacher numbers, which have dropped dramatically since 2007.

The party has placed the retention of teachers at the heart of its education policy, but councils argue the number of teachers has no direct correlation to educational standards.

In a separate development, the Scottish Government used a debate in the Scottish Parliament on education to announce the first seven local authorities to benefit from a new £100 million fund to help close the attainment gap.

Glasgow, Dundee, Inverclyde, West Dunbartonshire, North Ayrshire, Clackmannanshire and North Lanarkshire will receive money from the Scottish Attainment Challenge fund for projects which help pupils in the most disadvantaged areas.

Angela Constance, the Education Secretary, also told the Scottish Parliament a new £500,000 fund would support a National Mentoring Scheme to improve the lives of looked after children.

The moves come after research has repeatedly highlighted the stark educational differences between pupils who grow up in affluent backgrounds and their counterparts in deprived areas.

A report last year from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation calculated the difference in reading attainment between children from low income and high-income households was already 13 months by the time they were aged five.

Ms Constance said: "The fund will be directed specifically to improve literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing in primary schools because if we can close the attainment gap when children are young the benefits will continue into secondary school and beyond.

"There will be a bespoke improvement plan and access to resources and expertise in each area and we will measure improvement rigorously and ensure that lessons are learned nationally about what works and what doesn't."

While the funding was welcomed by MSPs during the Holyrood debate, Scottish Labour called for a doubling of the amount of money being invested.

Iain Gray, the party's education spokesman, called on the Scottish Government to back his party's plans for a further £25m per year programme of investment paid for through a 50p top rate of tax.

He said: "The gap associated with poverty and deprivation in local authority areas appears to be very wide. This is the not-so-secret shame of Scotland's schools that who you are and how much your parents earn will define your educational attainment and your life chances more than anything else.

"We are certainly willing to give the attainment fund a fair wind, but we simply believe that we need to do yet more and that we can."

The Scottish Conservatives called for ministers to consider the introduction of recent educational policies from England which have seen the setting up of academies and free schools which are not under council control.

Liz Smith, the party's education spokeswoman, said: "It simply cannot be right that pupils who come from poorer backgrounds have far less chance of getting good quality passes in national exams than their counterparts from better off areas.

"If it is proven that academies or free schools do provide better results for those children from poorer backgrounds, the SNP should set aside its political ideology and consider this approach."