72 "RELATING TO CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE LAWS ON THE USE OF LANGUAGES IN EDUCATION IN BELGIUM" v. BELGIUM (MERITS) JUDGMENT art. 14) of the Convention. In their view the refusal of homologation renders "illusory" and a "hoax" the sending of children to private Frenchlanguage 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