"RELATING TO CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE LAWS ON THE USE OF LANGUAGES
IN EDUCATION IN BELGIUM" v. BELGIUM (MERITS) JUDGMENT
15
constituted by the King; the head of family may appeal against the decision
of the inspectors or the commission to a board appointed by the King
(Section 18, and Royal Decrees of 30th November 1966 on the status and
functioning of the language inspectorate) without prejudice to a subsequent
appeal to the Conseil d’État (paragraph 210 of the Report). For the Greater
Brussels district and the six communes on the outskirts of Brussels the Act
of 2nd August 1963 (Sections 6 and 7 paragraphs 1 and 5) instituted a
supplementary control authority: a "Government commissioner who shall be
the Vice-Governor of the province of Brabant".
Penalties have been laid down for failure to comply with the provisions
of the Act of 30th July 1963. Under paragraph 6 of Section 17 "any false or
incorrect enrolment of a pupil by the head-master may entail disciplinary
action" - in official schools – or in the case of private, provincial, or
commune schools "withdrawal of subsidies for a period of not more than six
months" in respect of each infringement. More generally, it appears from
Section 1 of the Act that private establishments which do not observe the
provisions with regard to the languages to be used in education may not
receive State subsidies; besides, the Act of 30th July 1963 rescinds neither
Section 13 of the Act of 27th July 1955 nor Section 24 of the Act of 29th
May 1959. Moreover, the 1963 legislation results in the complete
withdrawal of subsidies from provincial, commune or private schools
providing, in the form of non-subsidised classes and in addition to the
instruction given in the language prescribed by the linguistic Acts, full or
partial instruction in another language (Sections 1 and 4 of the Act of 20th
July 1963, ministerial circulars of 9th and 29th August 1963, etc.).
A further penalty is imposed under Section 19 of the Act of 30th July
1963 which provides that "only school-leaving certificates that have been
issued by the educational establishments referred to in Section 1 or in other
independent educational establishments in accordance with the provisions of
this Act may be subject to homologation". Under paragraph 2 an exception
may be made to this principle but does not appear to be applicable to the
present case. The 1963 legislation, like that of 1932, leaves intact the
possibility of remedying the refusal of homologation by an examination
taken before the Central Board.
15. Articles 17 and 23, cited above, of the Belgian Constitution, have not
been revised and are therefore still in force. Consequently, children of the
Dutch-language area, including Flemish-speaking children, may be taught in
their area in French - or in any other language - by their parents, a private
tutor or an unsubsidised private School. A head of family who takes
advantage of this facility incurs no punishment and is complying with the
obligations to have his children educated (see for example Section I of the
consolidated Acts of 20th August 1957 on primary education) provided the
education given meets academic and technical requirements laid down by
law. The same applies, mutatis mutandis, throughout the Kingdom of