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    1. <LI value=38>Under the 1963 legislation, as under that of 1932, refusal of homologation can be remedied by an examination before the Central Board. As the Belgian Government has emphasised, "the Central Board was not originally created as a means for escaping the provisions of the language laws, but with a social and democratic aim: it enables children from poor families, whose parents could not afford to pay for regular schooling, to acquire nevertheless a legally recognised diploma. It also serves to correct mistakes where a child has gone into the wrong stream". Hence there are among those who appear before the Board, in addition to pupils who have completed their studies without conforming to the language laws, "many persons, who are self-taught, have received an irregular education or have followed a correspondence course". Central Boards exist not only at the level of intermediate education (lower and higher), but also for commercial education, teachers' training, university education and the most important branches of technical and artistic education.

      The examination covers all the subjects contained in the official syllabus of the studies covered. As regards secondary education, the candidates have the option of presenting themselves in two stages which correspond to the two cycles - lower and higher - of this education. The tests are conducted in Dutch, French or German at the choice of the person concerned. Enrolment is subject to the payment of fees which at present amount to 100 Belgian francs, for the obtaining of the diploma permitting entry to higher secondary education (examen de maturité), and 200 Belgian francs for that of the certificate of higher secondary studies or the diploma of admission to the examination of candidat ingénieur civil (Official Gazette of 4th May 1968, pages 5103-5104).
      The further information supplied to the Court in January 1968 by the Belgian Government and the Commission shows "that the number of certificates awarded by schools and entitled to homologation is greater for Dutch than for French education" but that "the opposite is true of certificates awarded by the Central Board". The Commission attributes this phenomenon to the number of French-speaking candidates who do not have their school-leaving certificate homologated owing to the irregularity of their studies for linguistic reasons.
      Neither the Belgian Government nor the Commission have been able to satisfy the Court's desire to obtain a table classifying, on the one hand, the pupils possessing a certificate signifying the completion of their secondary education but who have not conformed with the language legislation and, on the other hand, the other candidates. The Belgian Government points out that "the enrolment forms of the candidates intentionally do not bear any question concerning prior education", as it is desired that the Central Board should enjoy a position of "complete objectivity".
      It appears that the percentage of successful candidates who register before the Central Board for the higher grade of intermediate education generally fluctuates between 25 and 50 % for each of the two annual examinations and that fairly often it is lower in the case of children sitting the examination in French than in Dutch. According to the Belgian Government, it "corresponds roughly to the percentage of students who, having opened their secondary studies, manage to complete them successfully". A candidate who fails at the first attempt may present himself before the Central Board as many times as he wishes.
      2. Arguments presented by the Applicants before or through the Commission
    2. The Applicants are of the opinion that although the provisions in force prior to the legislation of 1932 (Act of 12th May 1910) were "eminently fair" in this matter, the Act of 15th July 1932 violated and Section 19 of the Act of 30th July 1963 violates, on the point under consideration, Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) and Articles 8 and 14 (art. 8, art. 14) of the Convention. In their view the refusal of homologation renders "illusory" and a "hoax" the sending of children to private French-language schools situated in Flanders as these schools deliver only "a mere piece of parchment of no practical use". It is true that employers are sometimes "at a pinch" satisfied with such a certificate; it also sometimes happens that pupils "at boarding schools for girls" are less concerned with getting a legally valid diploma than with acquiring "a good education". These are, however, "extremely rare" cases. "In official organisations, the civil service, and local government", only the legally recognised diploma counts, and this is "an essential document" in the career of everyone in Belgium. The Applicants do not dispute that the possession of a certificate without homologation is sufficient to allow access to "non-recognised degrees" as opposed to "legally recognised" or "academic" degrees. However the very existence of these two distinct degrees implies a difference in their value. The non-recognised degrees are of interest to almost no-one but foreigners. They are divided into two categories, the first comprising 118 degrees corresponding to certain of the 3469 legally recognised degrees, and the second "degrees awarded for courses not covered by law". The holder of a non-homologated certificate is not, in principle, admitted to technical education, higher level secondary commercial education and higher commercial studies, or "the most attractive professions", such as Bench and Bar, in general the civil service and local government, the medical and para-medical professions, etc. To the Belgian Government's objection that the Convention does not guarantee the right to exercise a profession, the Applicants replied that they are not invoking such a right but rather "the freedom of the father of the family, the right to education, the right to respect for family life" and the principle of non-discrimination. In their opinion, the refusal of homologation amounts to a "penalty" in disguise, to a "punitive" measure which condemns the "dissident" establishments to close down. It is not based on administrative or technical considerations relating, for example, to the "value of the teaching" or "its conformity with the curriculum", but is to be explained only by a deliberate wish to "stamp out" French in Flanders and to "dutchify" Brussels and its surroundings. It thus assumes an arbitrary and discriminatory character. Effectively it condemns anyone who has "received a French education in Flanders or a Flemish education in Wallonia", to be a "second class citizen". "The most flagrant" discrimination is to be found "at the international level" for Belgium recognises the equivalence of secondary school leaving certificates conferred in a number of States with which it has concluded bilateral or multilateral agreements.
      As regards the possibility of obtaining a legally recognised diploma, by going before the Central Board, the Applicants consider it to be in substance a "palliative" of a "discriminatory" nature. On this matter they emphasise that "a certificate of secondary school studies made in French in the Flemish region" and in accordance with the "official syllabus", is "tainted with nullity even though it attests to the same amount of work and knowledge as a Flemish diploma or a French diploma issued in the Brussels or Walloon regions". Furthermore, the candidates must take at the same time, "an all embracing examination" which is moreover "difficult", carrying "every subject taught from the first class of high school education up to and including the last"; it is therefore necessary for such candidates to make "an infinitely greater effort" than similar students who acquire their diplomas "year by year". In addition, and without mentioning the "entry fee", they appear before "an examinations board consisting of five strangers"; consequently they find themselves "in a very different psychological situation from a child who passes his examinations annually and piecemeal before his own teacher". This is why recourse to the Central Board remains an "exception".
      The Applicants point out that their thesis in no way implies, in their view, that States are bound, by virtue of the Convention and the Protocol, to grant to colonies of foreigners residing on their territory the same facilities as to their nationals. Unlike Italian or Polish, "French is in Belgium a national language"; as "full" citizens, the French-speaking Belgians are entitled to be treated on a completely equal footing with their compatriots.
      3. Arguments presented before the Court by the Belgian Government and by the Commission
    3. The Belgian Government is of the opinion that the legislation in dispute in no way infringes any of the three Articles (P1-2, art. 8, art. 14) invoked by the Applicants on the question under consideration. While its principal argument is that the Articles are totally inapplicable (cf. supra), it presents several subsidiary arguments.
      First, "scholastic emigration", whether accompanied or not by "some mixing of education", enables people to avoid the refusal of homologation. "French-speaking pupils resident in Flanders may attend official, or subsidised and recognised French-language secondary schools in the Brussels conurbation" or in Wallonia, "where they can obtain legally valid secondary leaving certificates"; it is moreover open to them to obtain the same result by "starting their secondary education in a Dutch-language school in Flanders" and to complete it "in a French-language school" in Brussels or Wallonia. It is true that the declaration of the head of the family is "checked" in the Brussels urban district (cf. supra). However it emerges from the provisions in force and in particular from a Royal Decree of 30th November 1966, that as long as the falsity of the declaration by the head of the family is not finally established, the child may continue to attend the school " to which he was admitted"; his education there will be deemed to be in accordance with the language law and will "in no way" prevent "homologation of his leaving certificate".
      As for the French-language secondary schools in Flanders, they issue only certificates which may not be homologated. Moreover the majority of their pupils are girls whose parents wish them to "be occupied", "from the age of twelve to the age of eighteen", "in a decent and proper way" and who therefore "do not need any diploma". Besides, non-homologated certificates are not without value: employers are sometimes satisfied with them. It is true that the holders of such certificates cannot enrol for higher-level technical education, higher-level artistic education, higher-level teachers' training, higher-level secondary commercial education and higher commercial studies, nor are they able to sit for a legally recognised university degree, not to take up any career that requires a diploma, in particular "a career in an official recognised branch of the legal profession - Bench, Bar or notary" - "a career in the medical and para-medical professions", "a career in teaching", "a career as a Government engineer" or a career in the higher grades of the civil service. On the other hand, "university education leading to a non-recognised degree", except for commercial studies, "falls entirely outside the field of application of the language laws". Non-recognised degrees, "awarded by universities under conditions which they are completely free to decide for themselves", are of considerable interest to those who wish to pursue "a career in industry and commerce" or a "para-legal or technical" career. Some of these, for example, the degree of "Doctor of Laws (non-recognised)", are the "twin brothers" of those "met with in legally-recognised education". For others, as numerous as they are varied, there are no equivalent legally-recognised degrees.
      Therefore, refusal of homologation constitutes a mere "inconvenience" and
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