SCOTLAND'S biggest city stands to lose nearly £5 million even if the number of teachers in its schools falls only slightly next year.

A breakdown of Scottish Government payments to maintain teacher numbers shows Glasgow faces a £4.9m claw-back if it fails to meet the commitment.

The Herald has obtained a council-by-council list of payments after revealing local authorities face losing their share of a £51m funding pot if classroom numbers drop by just one teacher.

The allocation, made up of £41m immediately and a further £10m from December, is based on the number of teachers already working in each local authority.

North Lanarkshire faces losing £3.6m, Fife £3.6m Edinburgh £3.3m and South Lanarkshire just under £3.2m.

The leader of Labour-run Glasgow City Council, councillor Gordon Matheson, accused ministers of ailing to take deprivation into account when allocating resources between the country's 32 authorities.

The government has argued maintaining teacher numbers and pupil-teacher ratios is essential to help close the attainment gap between children from better and less well off backgrounds.

But councillor Matheson said the allocation failed to recognise that 40 per cent of the most deprived children in Scotland, some 27,000 pupils, were taught in Glasgow.

In a letter to Deputy First Minister John Swinney, he claimed the city should have been offered £8.4million.

Councillor Matheson wrote: "I would strongly urge you to ensure that the £51million which you have threatened to withhold from Scotland's schools next year is distributed giving appropriate weighting to socio-economic need as well as population."

He told The Herald: "Glasgow City Council has always prioritised education and invested in our teachers, despite disproportionately large cuts to our budget from the Scottish Government.

"This is reflected in our year-on-year rises in attainment."

"I am committed to maintaining teacher numbers in Glasgow.

"However, I have written to John Swinney asking for an urgent meeting to discuss our financial settlement and to demand a fair deal for our city."

Among other councils, Aberdeen faces a claw-back of more than £1.6m, Dundee £1.47m, Stirling £964,000 and East Renfrewshire, the best-performing education authority, £1.2m

The details were included in a letter from Education Secretary Angela Constance to David O'Neill, president of councils' body Cosla.

The Scottish Government issued councils with an ultimatum after blaming them for breaking an SNP pledge to maintain teacher numbers, which have fallen dramatically since 2007.

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

When the row blew up, Mr O'Neill accused the Scottish Government of a "blatant attempt" to over-ride local authority decision-making.

Councils have been given until today (Fri) to commit to maintaining teacher numbers or forfeit their share of the funding immediately. Most are expected to agree.

Speaking during First Minister's Questions yesterday, Nicola Sturgeon told MSPs: "I make no apology for drawing a line in the sand with regard to teacher numbers.

"I want to maintain the number of teachers working in our schools because I see that as important to raising attainment.

"I hope that Labour and the Tories will tell their councils that they should be backing that as well."

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "Glasgow City Council receives the third highest revenue allocation per person of all mainland councils.

"The local government finance settlement already takes into account factors such as deprivation, and funding for teacher numbers is based on the number of teachers in each council.

"Glasgow will also benefit from our new £100 million Scottish Attainment Challenge fund, focussing on improving literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing in the most disadvantaged communities and giving all primary-school pupils the best start in life."

She added: "Having the highest quality and the right number of teachers in our schools is a policy we hope local authorities will support."