BBCA former leader of the county has warned that the young rural population of a county is “hemorrhaging” from the region amid concerns about reducing the rural population.
Schools in Pambrookshire have seen a decline of more than 2,000 in the pupil number since 1996 and the council is planning to consult on two others closing.
Councilor John Davis said that the trend was “unstable”, in which schools were getting empty, but doctors’ surgery was more crowded.
The Welsh government said that it recognized the challenge of demographic change and continued monitoring the trends.
Davis is part of a working group watching the future of Pambrookshire schools.
Council figures show that the number of primary school students in the Presley area fell between 2015 and 2024 and 6.6% in Tenbi in the same period.
He said: “For the first time in 30 years we are spending more on social care on education. Development is becoming an unstable challenge.”
Davis said that investment in rural areas needs to be “soon” and “catalyst for economic renewal” could be.
“We are looking at the upliftment of the city and investing in cities, and we have seen investment in rail infrastructure in South-East Wales.
“But what is happening in the context of investment in rural North Pembroxyer or what is happening in West Wales is not mentioned.”
He warned that rural areas may face equal decline in South Wales in the 1980s.
The Pembroxire Council is consulting the closure of the YSGOL Clydau in Tigre and Manorbier VC in Tenby.
Two children from Caroline Ferndeen are among 34 students at Ysgol Clydau, and said she was afraid of her potential closure.
“You will feel the community because it is taking everything out of the community,” he said.
“What else are they going to do? Are they going to close the hall too? Pub? There will be nothing for the people in the village.”
Fellow parents Steven Chambers said that the closure would only accelerate the trend of aging population, so that young families can be discouraged from going inside.
The estimates of the Welsh government suggests that by 2040, the number of students across the country can be around 50,000.
In Pembroxyar, the number has fallen by 12% since 1996 and a decline of 11.7% in the age of 15 years and predicted in the next 10 to 15 years.
The Carambarthanshire Council confirmed that it has 17 schools with less than 50 students.
Laura Dole of School Leaders Union Nat said: “When the birth rate falls and families walk in search of employment opportunities, it essentially affects the school rolls.
“With funds allocated per student basis, it further reduces the school budget which is already under severe pressure after years of low-investment.”
Amanda Hill-Dixon of Wales Center for Public Policy said that the age profile of rural areas was really changing “.
“So whatever we have in rural Wales is small people, and family and children are going out completely out of the rural wales cities or outside Wales,” he said.
“And then Wales, and especially in the rural Wales, in the migration of older people.”
He said that there was a “limit of implications” for public services, culture and language, with the need for more expenses on health and social care, left less for children’s services and schools.
“We can come into a doom loop, because there are low services for children and families and youth, and young people, children and family do not want to live in that field, and children and family do not want to go to that field.”
He said that a population workforce, In 2019, the Scottish government taken the sameWales may be needed.
Along with monitoring the trends of demographic changes, the Welsh government said that local authorities were to follow the school organization code while proposing “significant changes in schools”, including an estimate against the closure of rural schools.
