Education secretary Fiona Hyslop said the decline was “unacceptable” and blamed councils, claiming they had been given enough funding to maintain numbers.

But Labour leader Iain Gray called for her to be sacked and Tory education spokeswoman Liz Smith said she should “hang her head in shame”.

Figures on pupil numbers released today also show a decline — but the 0.7% drop is considerably smaller than the 2.5% drop in teachers.

The fall makes it hard for education chiefs to make progress in cutting class sizes, one of the SNP’s flagship policies.

Ms Hyslop said, “Half of Scotland’s councils have delivered improvements in primary school class sizes. Half have not. What is more, there has been a sharp fall in the number of teachers. That is simply unacceptable.”

She named Angus as one of the councils that had made good progress in cutting class sizes for younger pupils.

She added, “We now have to find a new way forward to ensure class size reductions in P1 to P3 are delivered in all of Scotland’s councils. The Scottish Cabinet will hold talks with COSLA leaders to discuss how we achieve this.

“We will discuss how best to establish where the estimated £110 million that could have been spent on teacher salaries has been spent, what help can be offered to individual councils facing specific difficulties and whether the Scottish Government needs to examine alternatives to the current system of local government delivery of education policy.”

She insisted that the Concordat agreement between the Scottish Government and councils had “explicitly accepted” that there was enough money available to maintain teacher numbers at 2007 levels.

More recently, a £10 million borrowing facility had been made available for councils to offer early retirement to 500 teachers and create jobs for newlyqualified teachers, she said.

The average primary class size across Scotland is 23.1 pupils, down slightly on last year. However, only 13.2% of the P1 to P3 pupils are in classes of 18 or fewer, unchanged on last year.

The total number of pupils receiving publicly funded school education is projected to decrease steadily from 677,000 this year to 662,000 in 2015 before rising again, with a peak of 684,000 expected in 2022.

Reacting to the figures, Mr Gray said, “Enough is enough. These figures today show the complete failure of Fiona Hyslop on teacher numbers.

“It’s time now for Alex Salmond to do the right thing and turf her out of his Cabinet.

“Her record in office has been one broken promise after another.”

Ms Smith said the number of teachers was down by 2000 in only two years.

“These latest statistics are seriously concerning, not just for the teaching profession and those aspiring to join it, but for parents and pupils the length and breadth of Scotland,” she said.

“It is a shocking reflection on the SNP Government that its manifesto commitments on education have been completely torn to shreds.”