Teachers gather outside Long Road Sixth Form College for a protest against Government cuts to further education funding.

CAMBRIDGE could have a “lost generation” of children if funding cuts to sixth form colleges continue, a teacher has warned.

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The worrying premonition came as dozens of teachers held a protest outside Long Road Sixth Form College yesterday in solidarity with their London colleagues striking this week.

Teachers have warned of larger classes, fewer teachers and the loss of subjects as the education sector struggles with the fastest falling rate of funding since the 1950s.

Teacher and National Union of Teachers (NUT) representatives at Long Road Philippe Harari said: “Education-wise, you are talking about a lost generation of kids.

“This is happening across the country and we are like any other college.”

Mr Harari said subjects like modern languages and classics could be left off the syllabus as schools attempt to work with as much as a 13 per cent real-term funding cut over four years.

Now in the second year of those savings, Mr Harari said: “Student provision in terms of one-to-one workshops are being cut back.

“Teachers will work harder but if you have stressed teachers that does not lead to a good education.”

Student Amelia Morgan, 17, said she is waiting to pick her A-levels as she does not know whether the course she wants will still exist in September.

“If Health and Social Care gets cut, it means I will be forced into taking a different course which might not be the one I actually want to do,” she said.

Jahnavi Howard, 16, said removal of the education maintenance allowance in 2010 had left her struggling to pay for the bus to school: “I can barely afford to come to college - it’s £21 a week for the bus.”

The funding relationship between the government and sixth form colleges uses the Sixth Form Colleges’ Forum as a mediator and sixth form colleges have discretion when it comes to their own budget.

Jon Duveen, secretary of the Cambridgeshire NUT, said the effects of cuts will hit harder amid high youth unemployment levels and the introduction of tuition fees.

In London today sixth form college teachers will walk out over funding and staff pay freezes.

A spokesman for the Department of Education said: “Strikes benefit no one. We are investing record funding of £7.5 billion in 16 to 19 year olds’ education this year, despite the tightest public finances for a generation.

“It is down to Sixth Form Colleges themselves to decide their own pay and conditions.”