"RELATING TO CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE LAWS ON THE USE OF LANGUAGES IN EDUCATION IN BELGIUM" v. BELGIUM (MERITS) JUDGMENT 73 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 40. 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