Annex I 165 into account the particular conditions prevailing in that country. As long as the prohibitions are based on reasonable and objective grounds, they must be respected. 4.3 States should take appropriate measures so that, wherever possible, persons belonging to minorities may have adequate opportunities to learn their mother tongue or to have instruction in their mother tongue. 59. Language is among the most important carriers of group identity. In line with the general requirement in article 1 that States shall encourage the promotion of the linguistic identity of the minority concerned, measures are required for persons belonging to minorities to learn their mother tongue (which is a minimum) or to have instruction in their mother tongue (which goes some steps further). 60. The steps required in these regards depend on a number of variable factors. Of significance will be the size of the group and the nature of its settlement, i.e., whether it lives compactly together or is dispersed throughout the country. Also relevant will be whether it is a long‑established minority or a new minority composed of recent immigrants, whether or not they have obtained citizenship. 61. In cases where the language of the minority is a territorial language traditionally spoken and used by many in a region of the country, States should to the maximum of their available resources ensure that linguistic identity can be preserved. Pre-school and primary school education should ideally in such cases be in the child’s own language, i.e., the minority language spoken at home. Since persons belonging to minorities, like those belonging to majorities, have a duty to integrate into the wider national society, they need also to learn the official or State language(s). The official language(s) should gradually be introduced at later stages. Where there is a large linguistic minority within the country, the language of the minority is sometimes also an official language of the State concerned. 62. At the European regional level, educational rights relating to minority languages are developed at greater length in the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, adopted by the Council of Europe. On this subject, a group of experts elaborated the Hague Recommendations regarding the Education Rights of National Minorities (October  1996), prepared under the auspices of the Foundation on Inter-Ethnic Relations. 63. In regard to non-territorial languages spoken traditionally by a minority within a country, but which are not associated with a particular region of that country, a uniform solution is more difficult to find. The principles stated above should be applied where appropriate, but where the persons belonging to the minority live dispersed, with only a few persons in each particular place, their children need to learn the language of the surrounding environment more fully at an earlier stage. Nevertheless, they should always also have an opportunity to learn their mother tongue. In this regard, persons belonging to minorities have a right, like others, to establish their private institutions, where the minority language is the main language of instruction. However, the State is entitled to require that the State language also be taught. One question to be addressed is whether the State is obliged to provide subsidies for such teaching. It would be a requirement that the State does ensure the existence of and fund some institutions which can ensure the teaching of that minority language. It follows from the general wording of article 4.3 that everyone should have adequate opportunities “wherever possible”. How far the obligation to fund teaching of minority languages for persons belonging to dispersed groups goes would therefore depend on the resources of the State. 64. Greater difficulties arise in regard to languages used solely by persons belonging to new minorities. These are usually more dispersed than are the older and settled minorities, and the