If I can come in there, to be perfectly honest, I think this is the main challenge or concern facing Welsh-medium and bilingual secondary schools at the moment. Sixth forms are in a very vulnerable position. Schools are in a very vulnerable position because budgets and so on that are available to the schools in general, and more so on the sixth form level, where the numbers are lower. And contrary to the principle of a school, when decisions are driven by funding and so on, that creates a challenge to schools.
I think the concern that we have is that it's not a level playing field. So, whilst we want Welsh-medium pathways and as much Welsh-medium and bilingual provision as possible in every sector, the best continuity for every pupil is what we want at the end of the day. But that competition and that playing field is so unequal in terms of funding, where external grants can be received, and external sponsorship can be received, and schools are therefore under a disadvantage in that regard.
I think what's also important for us to be thinking about is that we want to see these developments in every sector. We want bilingual provision. We want Welsh-medium provision. But what's vital is that it's not at the expense of provision in another sector. I think there are concerns in some places or in certain contexts that there may be exciting developments in one organisation, but what we're doing, truth be told, is moving learners from one place to another, and if that provision isn't entirely through the medium of Welsh, unfortunately, what we see is a rolling back in terms of the use of the Welsh language by those pupils. I'm saying that this is where the challenge is, but it's also where the opportunity is.
As Ioan was saying now, in terms of the plan for Welsh-medium provision in the context of the work of Medr, clearly the changes are frightening in terms of several aspects that are happening in the post-16 sector. But here, now, there's an opportunity to look at the challenges facing sixth forms in schools. We know that the sixth form is important to the life of the school and how important it is in terms of continuity, in terms of the Welsh language and the use of Welsh language skills and the transfer of that into FE and HE and into careers and so on. So, we certainly know that there's value in sixth forms, but what we have is funding challenges militating against that. So, when we want to contribute towards the development of the plan that Ioan mentioned, we need to ensure that there are funding formulas that are fair, that there is planning that is fair and reasonable, and then that there is that deliberate collaboration.
There is no opposition at all in schools to collaboration. A number of schools collaborate with their local FE colleges. That works in terms of specific subjects. And there are a number of schools pooling their resources to collaborate to provide. Collaboration is only a problem when it turns from being collaboration to competition. That's what we want to avoid. We want to ensure that any investment in provision is fair and is reasonable and comes back to what is best for the learner at the end of the day, rather than what leads to filling the coffers of a particular institution. That's vitally important. As I said, there are major concerns and challenges in our schools, but hopefully by working together and there being input from those schools into the process of developing the plan and collaborating with Medr in general, we can tackle those challenges now.