EDUCATION Secretary Angela Constance is facing calls to investigate a publicly-funded language centre which has been accused of publishing pro-independence propaganda.

The Scots Language Centre, which provides free resources for schools, published a brief history of the referendum on its website which implied the No campaign failed to win a legitimate majority.

Referring to last year's vote, the article stated: "On that day 55 per cent of the registered electorate voted against independence while 45 per cent voted in favour.

"Or, put another way, two million of the population voted against independence while the remaining three and a half million either voted for independence, didn't vote, or never had a vote."

It has since been removed from the website.

Willie Rennie, the Scots Lib Dem leader, said: “It’s disappointing that an organisation that’s funded by the state and sending information round schools and pupils is distorting information in this way and with a clear political agenda.

"If they want to be taken seriously they need to have a good look at what they think their objectives are. The Education Secretary must investigate this."

Scottish Conservative deputy leader Jackson Carlaw said:

"This is such a laughable statement it’s almost impossible to get upset about.

"Worryingly, it seems the Scots Language Centre doesn’t understand children aren’t allowed to vote, and doesn’t know what the population of Scotland is.

"People will be rightly asking just why taxpayers are coughing up to spout this nonsense."

Earlier this year, Ms Constance's deputy, minister for learning and languages Alasdair Allan, launched the government's Scots language policy.

As part of the effort to promote spoken and written Scots, quango Education Scotland will adopt trilingual corporate signage so that messages are written in English, Gaelic and Scots.

The Scottish Government currently spends a total of £270,000 on funding the Scots Language Centre and Scottish language dictionaries.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "The Scots Language Centre is responsible for the content of its website and we understand that the text in question has now been removed."

No-one at the Perth-based centre was available for comment.