TEACHERS fear school sixth forms in the North-East could fall victim to a shake-up of the way post-16 education is organised.

Union leaders claim thousands of A and AS-Level students will be hit by legislation it says will deny local communities a say over where school sixth forms are located.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) is calling on the Government to remove a clause in the Education Bill, currently going through Parliament.

Clause 68 will enable the newly-formed Learning and Skills Council (LSC) to propose sixth form closures or openings directly to Education Secretary Estelle Morris, bypassing local education authorities.

The NUT has warned that small sixth forms in rural areas in the North-East and North Yorkshire could be under threat, with their futures decided in Whitehall.

Terry Buckler, NUT Northern regions secretary, said Middlesbrough had already seen a number of small sixth forms sucked into larger further education colleges. He fears more small sixth forms could follow suit.

"There's a real fear that once the transition period of two or three years is over, there could be problems," he said.

"This is a region that has a lot of rural communities, where the vast majority of sixth form provision is still traditional and I know there are concerns in these schools about what the future holds.

"Going down this route (leaving out local education authorities), poses a serious risk to the traditional sixth form."

Mr Buckler said the LSC would not be accountable in the way that people can vote at elections if they do not like the decisions their local education authorities are making.

Until now, the Secretary of State has not been involved in decisions on where to site new sixth forms.

They are left to local education authorities, schools and school organisation committees.

However, a Department for Education and Skills spokesman insisted sixth forms were not at risk.

"The Education Bill is not a threat to school sixth forms - it will actually make it easier for good schools without sixth forms to open them.

"The new powers for the Learning and Skills Council will require extensive local consultations before any proposals may be published for the reorganisation of sixth forms.

"The Bill aims to encourage all those involved in the education of young people to work in close partnership with each other."