CHANGES to the way sixth-forms in Wales are funded may lead to the closure of small schools such as Ysgol Dewi Sant (YDS) in St Davids.

Members of the county council's children and families overview and scrutiny committee heard on Thursday how small rural schools, such as YDS, may lose their sixth-forms because of the cuts and this could result in the entire school being closed.

"This could lead to the demise of the sixth-form of Pembrokeshire's smallest school," said Councillor John Cole. "Parents may then not send their kids to that school because they want continuity of education. The school would then no longer be viable and have to close."

YDS headteacher Walter Dash said: "While a lot of funding issues are much clearer than they have been for a while, we are still not at a stage of knowing what exactly will happen.

"We have to be very prudent about what subjects we have in our sixth-form and now even more careful about what we offer.

"We have an excellent record of sending pupils to university and it would be a very dramatic step if we were to lose our sixth- form."

Cllr Cole also expressed concern about the imbalance between the funding of school A-levels and their vocational equivalents, NVQs, taken at college.

"Colleges get double that of schools, which is massively unfair," he said of figures which showed an A- level taken in school receives 54 credits, while a medium-size NVQ level three course, gets 112 credits.

Cllr Cole also felt the cuts would inevitably lead to staff redundancies. "In the college system, they employ part-time staff. The implication now is that schools may also only be able to employ part-time staff," he said. "We will be losing staff, who are going to be made redundant."