The Assembly therefore recommends that the Committee of Ministers
ask the governments of states signatories to the European Cultural
Convention to take account of the following principles when reviewing
their national education policies:
6.1 governments should avoid prescribing the exclusive use
of the official language and abstain from pursuing policies aimed
at the assimilation of national minorities into the majority culture;
6.2 persons belonging to a linguistic minority should have
access to suitable types and levels of public education in their
mother tongue in order to prepare for higher education;
6.3 all citizens should have the possibility to study their
own language and culture in general, and also at university level;
persons belonging to minority groups should be encouraged to take
part in higher education in their own country as well as abroad;
mutual recognition of qualifications should be promoted, especially
in neighbouring countries;
6.4 governments should recognise the fundamental liberty to
engage in higher education activities and to establish institutions
for that purpose; such institutions should be officially supported
once their satisfactory quality has been established - on a non-discriminatory
and fair basis - and a genuine demand has been demonstrated; language
should not be a criteria for recognising institutions or qualifications;
6.5 higher education institutions should develop out-reach
programmes designed to facilitate the access of minorities, for
example by collaborating more closely with secondary education institutions;
6.6 students from minority groups should have the possibility
to sit entrance examinations to higher education in their mother
tongue;
6.7 a system of bonuses, given in the entrance examination
on the basis of language, could be envisaged as a means of encouraging
persons belonging to linguistic minorities;
6.8 young persons from minority groups should, like other
young people, and under the same conditions as them, be able to
receive vocational training after general basic education and to
attend education at all levels, whether or not in their mother tongue,
without any additional financial constraints;
6.9 special courses in minority languages and cultures should
be included in the curricula of teacher training institutions;
6.10 new information and communications technologies should
be used more widely as these are well suited for the education of
minority groups and of students in geographically remote areas;
6.11 the access of minorities to higher education, as well
as their subsequent participation in it, should be monitored on
the basis of data voluntarily given by the students and in conformity
with data protection principles.
