Twenty-two secondary teaching posts across the area, and another eight at primary level, will be lost later this year.

Trade union and council officials met on Tuesday to begin working out how each school might be affected - but it seems unlikely that pupils on Bute will escape the impact.

Individual schools have until March 19 to calculate where falling school rolls might allow teacher numbers to be reduced.

Dougie Mackie, the Argyll and Bute secretary of the EIS teachers' union, said: "We are very concerned about the impact of these cuts on both primary and secondary education in Argyll and Bute.

"They will affect all subject areas, but particularly English and mathematics - and at a time of great concentration on literacy and numeracy and the Curriculum for Excellence, which will be much harder to implement as a result.

"Our more disadvantaged children will get less one-to-one time with staff, and there will be a greater risk of indiscipline in our schools.

"Head teachers will have to do more teaching themselves, and will have less time to manage teaching and learning - and this, apparently, is only the start of the process, because we are told things are going to be much worse over the next two years."

Mr Mackie said teachers from Rothesay were among some eight thousand staff from across Scotland who took part in a march and rally in Glasgow on Saturday to protest at the impact of the public sector financial squeeze on the country's young people.

"Saturday's rally was only the start of the EIS campaign," he continued.

"We will keep it running for as long as is required to get the necessary resources for teaching, because we will not solve the long term economic situation of this country by making cuts in education.

"We're well aware of the difficult financial climate, but we don't think making cuts in public expenditure is the way to go, because it will mean a lot of money which is spent in local economies will disappear.

"Employees spend their money in local communities, schools buy resources from their local communities and repair their buildings using local companies, and all that activity will decrease - and in an area like Argyll and Bute, where the council is such a major part of the economy, the effect will be considerable."

Argyll and Bute Council has confirmed it is to carry out a review of clerical and classroom assistant provision, with a view to implementing staffing changes by the start of the 2010-11 school year.

However, a spokeswoman said it was too early to predict the implications for individual schools - and pointed out that the authority had been forced to make some "difficult decisions" in every service area in order to plug an £8.3 million budget gap in 2010-11.

"These decisions were unanimous among all 36 members, who – following many weeks of deliberations – agreed them as the best way forward," she said.