A/HRC/34/53/Add.2 Affected students and parents expressed their profound regret with the decision, which would entail having to travel around 30 kilometres to the nearest State language school. 30. In Gagauzia, the Special Rapporteur was informed that, although education is mainly conducted in Russian, Gagauzian is a mandatory subject in the school curriculum and the 2016 Law on Gagauzian Language and Education adopted by the Gagauzian’s Peoples Assembly aims at expanding the scope of Gagauzian to be the language of instruction for some curricular subjects. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the first pilot projects on bilingual education in Gagauzia and stresses that bilingual and multilingual education could be a long-term solution to guarantee the right to mother-tongue education while ensuring the learning of the State language. 31. The importance of learning and having a good command of the State language was universally stated by all the minority representatives consulted. Many interlocutors expressed concerns that the education of the State language provided in minority-language schools was of low quality and that the teachers in charge of the subject did not have the desired qualifications to provide high-quality language instruction. They further emphasized the negative consequences of poor fluency in the State language, including difficulties in gaining access to university education — as the lyceum graduation examination had a specific exam on State language command — and to the labour market, and the limitation of opportunities in the public administration, as proficiency in the State language was required to hold public positions. 32. The Special Rapporteur received several complaints from various interlocutors with regard to the competition for employment of heads of school administration, which is administered in the State language, although this requisite was waived in Gagauzia, where applicants were allowed to take the exam in Russian. 33. Representatives of the Ministry of Education stressed that mother-tongue education was a priority and, while noting the adoption of a plan to improve the quality of State language teachers for minorities, acknowledged the difficulty to implement it given financial constraints. B. Public administration 34. Other language issues that featured strongly during the visit included the possibility to use Russian when addressing the public administration. Many interlocutors complained of instances in which their written submissions in Russian, including to courts, were either answered in the State language or directly rejected. In fact, representatives of the Equality Council noted that, out of the over 100 decisions issued by the Council to date that found discrimination, more than 10 cases referred to a violation of linguistic rights, mainly the refusal by courts to accept complaints submitted in Russian. 35. Some interlocutors pointed out that certain government websites were not available in Russian, including the Ministries of Culture and the Interior, and the Police, among other agencies. 36. The Special Rapporteur heard complaints by some governmental officials with respect to the cost of the translation of documents into minority languages, which was, in some instances, regarded as a “burden”. She would like to recall her 2012 thematic study on the rights of linguistic minorities, in which she noted that the ability of minorities to engage institutions and administrative bodies in minority languages ensured their ability to express their views, participate in consultative process and influence national policy that affects 9