23 Any support given to private educational facilities however must comply with the prohibition on discrimination. State support only for minority schools and teaching in particular languages could violate this fundamental principle and be discriminatory if the difference in treatment between languages is neither reasonable nor justified. Policymakers need to ensure that minorities are not penalized for being taught in their own language in private schools. Their diplomas should be automatically recognized, and admission exams to universities and other state educational institutions should also be conducted in minority languages. Where this is not feasible, some other arrangement should be made to accommodate the admission of minorities so that they are not disproportionally excluded from higher education. This could take the form of tertiary education in minority languages where practicable. If students are disproportionally or unreasonably excluded from access to higher education, this could be considered discriminatory. Good practices • Japan recognizes the qualifications of those who graduate from private Korean schools for admission to tertiary education. • High schools which are semi-public and semi-private using Mandarin as the medium of instruction have been in place in Malaysia since the 1960s. Public primary schools also teach in this minority language. • In Kazakhstan and Lithuania, bilateral agreements with other governments allow foreign state universities to operate and provide tertiary education in minority languages. Białystok University, a Polish state university, maintains a campus in Lithuania. Its courses in Polish provide universitylevel education in the language of the country’s largest minority. • After three years of mother tongue (Malay) teaching in Southern Thailand, primary grade 1 (age 6-7) children taught in their own language scored an average 40 per cent better in reading, mathematics, social studies, and Thai language skills than children in the Thai-only public schools; Malay minority boys were 123 per cent more likely to pass the mathematics exam.42 4.3 Administrative, Health and Other Public Services What should be done? Where practicable, clear and easy access should be provided to public health care, social and all other administrative or public services in minority languages. Why it should be done Where state authorities can practicably use a particular minority language in a specific territory, and in the absence of any reasonable basis to exclude such use of a minority language, it would be discriminatory in international law to forbid the use of a minority language and impose the use of the official language in administrative and other public services.43 A state’s resources must be 42 43 Kosonen, K. and Person, K.R. (note 21). Diergaardt et al. v. Namibia (note 12).