Thirty years after the signing of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, access to schooling in these languages remains difficult for many children and their families. This paper looks at the challenges faced by parents in accessing education in the language spoken at home in Europe, with a specific focus on languages that are recognised as regional or minority languages by individual nation states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Legal issues relating to regional and minority education are also explored, particularly the difficulties and barriers that parents face in enforcing the legal right for their children to receive education in their native language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The paper additionally discusses the problems in finding and retaining suitably qualified teachers of minority and regional languages, particularly in countries where speakers of a given language are not concentrated in a specific area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Issues relating to the denial of access to education in a student’s first language are explored, with particular emphasis on comparing the linguistic policies of devolved political administrations such as those found in Spain or in the United Kingdom with the policies of centralised administrations such as in Croatia or Poland. Finally, potential solutions are presented with respect to the problem of access to education with a particular emphasis on information and communications technology as a key equaliser in respects to broadening and strengthening access to high quality tuition in the student’s own language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Keywords: <\/strong>minority language, education, tuition, teaching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Michael Forbes Thirty years after the signing of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, access to schooling in these languages remains difficult for many children and their families. This paper looks at the challenges faced by parents in … Continue reading