An elite prep school is to shut down this year - the fifth such closure since government slashed the sector's funding.
It has been proposed that Cygnet House, the preparatory department of Glenlola Collegiate in Bangor, close by the end of August.
It is the latest in a line of prep schools that has decided it cannot survive with diminishing numbers and money.
The amount of public money preps receive was cut by former education minister Caitríona Ruane.
An independent review said subsidising fee-charging schools was an "inequitable use of public funds".
Preps schools charge annual fees of between £3,500 and £4,500 per pupil.
Since government cash was reduced by a third, four have closed their doors.
Declining enrolments were blamed for shutting Bloomfield Collegiate Preparatory in Belfast and Connor House in Bangor in 2011.
Dalriada prep followed in 2013, while Down High prep shut last summer.
In the past Cygnet House was traditionally for girls only but has been more recently taking boys.
Enrolments plummeted between 2011 and 2012 but picked up again after it became co-educational. It had 65 pupils last year - 55 girls and 10 boys.
The published proposal from the Education Authority to close Cygnet House:
Glenlola principal Eric Thompson said Cygnet House had always been a small school with a reputation for high quality education.
The previous closure of Connor House, he said, generated substantial anxiety for Cygnet House parents.
"Many felt torn at that time and although the majority decided to stay, a number decided that, given the uncertainty, they would find places for their children in larger primary schools," he said.
"Since that time the board of governors has worked tirelessly with a group of highly committed and supportive parents to build up the enrolment of the school and had until recently done this with some success.
"However, with a large P7 group leaving at the end of June and a smaller P1 group due to join us in September, concerns regarding pupil numbers resulted in a number of parents once again moving to larger primary schools in the area.
"This in turn intensified the anxieties of those parents who remained and in a very short space of time the number of pupils had fallen to a level that brought the school's sustainability into question."
There remain 13 prep schools, all attached to non-Catholic grammars. Numbers are in sharp decline at about half.
Methodist College Belfast has two - Fullerton House and Downey House. Enrolments at Fullerton dropped from 198 to 164 between 2011 and last year. Over the same period, Downey's numbers fell from 193 to 132.
At Regent House in Newtownards, numbers have fallen from 121 to 97 while at Strathearn's prep department Penrhyn, there are now 131 pupils compared to 158 in 2011.
