36 "RELATING TO CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE LAWS ON THE USE OF LANGUAGES IN EDUCATION IN BELGIUM" v. BELGIUM (MERITS) JUDGMENT coincided for the most part, on the question under consideration, with the opinion of the Commission to which it expressly referred. 6. The Commission is of the view that the laws on the use of languages in education in the unilingual regions do not conflict with the requirements of the Convention and Protocol; before the Court it confirmed the opinion expressed by the majority on this point in the Report. The absence of any violation of Article 2 of the Protocol (P1-2) follows, in the view of the Commission (cf. supra), from the fact that the first sentence of this provision obliges States neither to establish nor to subsidise any teaching whatsoever (seven votes against five) and that the second does not safeguard respect for the cultural or linguistic preferences of parents (unanimity). The Commission recalls however that in the opinion of five of its members, the first sentence of Article 2 (P1-2) gives rise to duties to take positive steps. Two of these members nevertheless arrive at the same conclusion as the majority; for the other three, however, "the refusal (...) to organise or subsidise French education at the compulsory primary level in the Flemish areas cannot be reconciled with Article 2 of the Protocol (P12)". The laws on the use of languages in education in the unilingual regions likewise do not disregard Article 8 (art. 8) of the Convention. Certainly it is possible to imagine that they affect the "private and family life" of the Applicants, causing it "grave and unjustified disturbances" (cf. supra). The question arises however only in relation to primary education, which is the only compulsory education in Belgium. Some of the various solutions open to the Applicants, namely having their children taught at home, sending them to school abroad, or sending them to a private school in Flanders providing education in French, are out of the question for "the immense majority of heads of families" by reason of their "high cost". There remain therefore recourse to "scholastic emigration", and sending the children to a Dutch-language school. Scholastic emigration - daily "commuting" or boarding out - presents "very serious hardships", but these hardships are "not dictated by the Act itself", "otherwise they would represent a violation of Article 8 (art. 8)": they result from the "wishes of the parents" who are able to "avoid them by enrolling their children in local Flemish-speaking establishments". "The need to send children to a Flemish school" does not constitute "an interference in private or family life". Although the abolition of transmutation classes and special language classes (Act of 30th July 1963) seems "regrettable" in its view, the Commission thinks that "Frenchspeaking parents will generally have the opportunity to react in their homes against the ‘depersonalisation’ or ‘flemicisation’ of their children", as the pupils "will usually after a short transitional period, be able to follow with profit the instruction they receive in Dutch" and the majority of parents "will be able to supervise their children’s education": "it is difficult to imagine that people living permanently in the region will be totally ignorant