effective equality of persons belonging to minorities are not considered as such to be acts of discrimination of the majority or of other groups (Article 4.3). Equal access to education is also regulated under Article 12(3). Article 5 elaborates on the necessity of promoting adequate conditions for maintaining and developing the culture and the essential elements of the identity of persons belonging to national minorities. Articles 12-14 are further explanation of what this means in the field of education. The importance of Articles 4 and 5 lies, as already mentioned, in that they make clear that an active and coherent educational policy is necessary in order to implement the provisions in the Framework Convention. In addition to the requirement of clear and coherent legislative and institutional guarantees, the existence of basic data in the field of education is a precondition for any active educational policy. In order to implement these provisions (especially Article 5, 12 and 14), all State Parties need to have adequate data on the different groups living within their countries as well as their needs and aspirations in the field of education. The Advisory Committee has been sensitive to the differing needs of different individuals and groups within a single minority group. Concentrated groups and individuals living in urban environments may have different needs and expectations than dispersed minorities or rural populations. For this reason, Article 15 guaranteeing the right of effective participation of persons belonging to minorities needs to be kept in mind, when designing and implementing educational policies, in order to ensure the expression of the multiplicity of needs and wishes of different segments of minority groups. The Advisory Committee has consistently underlined the need to respect the principle of free self-identification of persons belonging to national minorities and the existence of adequate guarantees in the treatment of demographic, ethnic and other personal data in accordance with Article 3 of the Framework Convention. At the same time it is important that, through a combination of quantitative and qualitative tools, States make needs assessments in the field of education in consultation with those concerned12. The importance of national baseline data increases as the field of education gets more and more decentralized. The absence of such basic data cannot be used as an excuse for not acting e.g. in the field of minority education. The Advisory Committee has often noted the absence of gender disaggregated information in the State Reports and as a consequence also in many of the Opinions of the Advisory Committee. In some cases this is the result of absence of basic data on education and on minorities as a whole (in some countries due to legal impediments on the collection of data). In other countries such data exists but does not reflect the positions and achievements of girls and boys, men and women in the educational system. Differences between men and women in the educational sphere often result in difference in the access and status in employment and should be monitored vigorously. Negative stereotypes concerning gender roles - among majorities as well as minorities - must be exposed and debated publicly and concerted efforts 12 Also academics and NGOs may be able to assist in the collection and evaluation of such data. See for instance the report ‘The Right to Education of Persons Belonging to National Minorities in Voivodina’, Voivodina Center for Human Rights, Novi Sad, 2005. 10