Sam Galbraith: "Tangible benefits"

The statistics - published by the Scottish Executive education department - provide a snapshot of Scottish school numbers on census day, which fell on 13 September last year.

There were nearly 52,300 full-time equivalent teachers across all Scotland's 3,044 schools - an increase of 620 on the previous year.

That represented an increase of 149 primary school teachers, 365 in secondary schools and 92 in special schools.

The number of classroom assistants and other non-teaching staff in primary schools rose by 770 to 2,270.

Mr Galbraith said government spending on education had increased by 18% since Labour came to power.

'Increased investment'

"The increasing number of teachers and non-teaching staff in classrooms is clear evidence that we are now beginning to see tangible benefits from that increased investment, and demonstrates that education is a priority for both central and local government," he said.

The schools census contains information on numbers of schools, pupils, schools staff, class sizes and, for the first time, modern computers.

The number of pupils attending schools in Scotland fell by almost 6,000 to more than 783,000.

Teacher numbers are rising

There were 5,600 fewer pupils in publicly-funded primary schools and 1,100 more in publicly-funded secondaries. The number in independent schools fell slightly, while those in special schools showed a small rise.

The falling number of pupils, combined with the rise in teachers, meant a decrease in the ratio of pupils to teachers in both primary and secondary schools.

The number of pupils with special educational needs rose by 11% to 38,200 across all school sectors, although it was thought that changes in how figures were recorded could have contributed to this rise.

The results also showed that there was one modern computer for every 28 primary, nine secondary and seven special school pupils last September.

However, the figures were branded a 'damp squib' by Scottish Conservative education spokesman Brian Monteith.

"Labour made reduced primary school class sizes the top of their five key election pledges, yet the changes their policies have brought about are no more than marginal," said the MSP.

"The latest change is mostly due to falling school rolls and not the very small increase in teacher numbers."