In addition, the Chancellor was asked to verify whether the regulation defining school Christmas holidays was in conformity with the Constitution. The Chancellor found that nowadays the words “Christmas”, “Christmastime” or “Christmas holidays” do not have the meaning of a religious holiday in the context of state and municipal schools, rather it is a holiday based on popular traditions aimed at celebrating the winter solstice, and in Estonian schools Christmas is also celebrated in this meaning. The Chancellor found that no matter what religious beliefs a child or their family hold, a public school must be neutral and impartial with regard to the issues of church and religion. Moreover, the Chancellor noted that the legislator has established a flexible legal basis for school holidays as under § 24(7) of the Basic Schools and Upper Secondary Schools Act, on the basis of a proposal of the head of the school and with the approval of the board of trustees, the owner of a school may establish school holidays different from those established by the Minister of Education and Research. Within his ombudsman function, the Chancellor also analysed how people with a mobility, hearing and visual impairment are ensured the right to use the services of a notary. On 26 September 2014, the Chancellor made recommendations to the Minister of Justice and the Chamber of Notaries, as he found that people with a mobility, hearing and visual impairment might not be ensured sufficient access to the services of notaries. The Chancellor recommended to the Chamber of Notaries (1) to assess the accessibility of its homepage (for people with a visual impairment) and to publish on its homepage, in a manner accessible for people with a visual impairment, information on how the services of notaries are provided for people with a mobility, hearing and visual impairment, and to recommend notaries to publish the relevant guidelines in the same way on the websites of their offices; (2) to consider in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice drawing up a plan of action on how to make notaries’ offices accessible for people with a mobility, hearing and visual impairment; (3) to consider drawing up advisory guidelines for notaries on the choice of location of a notary’s office and providing services to people with a mobility, hearing and visual impairment, involving the relevant organisations of people with disabilities in preparing the guidelines; (4) to consider, in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice and competent sign language interpreting specialists, defining of objective criteria (e.g. the extent of the hearing loss and the corresponding level of disability, a test to establish the reading or writing ability, etc) for assessing the need for the involvement of a sign language interpreter, and preparing the relevant guidelines; (5) to ask that in the provision of notarial services to deaf people notaries should prefer using a certified sign language interpreter when the need for interpreting services appears. The Chancellor also made recommendations to the Ministry of Justice to analyse the conformity of rules established under the Notarisation Act with the needs of people with a hearing or visual impairment as well as deafblind persons, and to prepare the relevant plans of action and guidance materials. 3. General fundamental right to equality, and discrimination In addition, the Chancellor dealt with a few petitions in which he verified whether the activities of public authorities were in conformity with the principle of equal treatment. The Chancellor did not find any violations of the rights. 73