CRC/C/15/Add.137 page 10 vocational training for drop-out students; to extend coverage and to improve the quality of education, respecting geographical and cultural diversity; and to improve the relevance of bilingual education programmes for children belonging to indigenous and Afro-Colombian groups. Furthermore, in view of the ongoing armed conflict in the State party, the Committee recommends that the State party strengthen its programmes on human rights education, including on the rights of the child, in its teacher training programmes and school curricula, and ensure that every child receives such education. The Committee encourages the State party to consider seeking technical assistance in this area, inter alia, from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNICEF and UNESCO. 7. Special protection measures Children affected by armed conflict 54. While the Committee welcomes the prohibition of recruitment of children under the age of 18 into the armed forces, it expresses its deep concern at the very high numbers of children who have been forcibly recruited into guerrilla and paramilitary groups. 55. The Committee is deeply concerned about the extremely negative impact of the armed conflict on all children, including children formerly involved in hostilities, and about the serious threat to their right to life, survival and development and the severe psychological trauma inflicted upon them. Concern is also expressed at the lack of a national policy to guarantee the social reintegration of children formerly involved in hostilities. 56. The Committee urges the State party to take effective measures to have all child abductees and combatants released and demobilized and to rehabilitate and reintegrate them into society. The Committee further recommends that the State party establish and strictly enforce its legislation prohibiting the future recruitment of children by any group. 57. The Committee also urges the State party to take all effective measures, in cooperation with United Nations agencies and bodies such as UNICEF, to address the physical needs of child victims of the armed conflict, in particular child amputees, and the psychological needs of all children affected directly or indirectly by the traumatic experiences of war. In this regard, the State party is recommended to develop as quickly as possible a long-term and comprehensive programme of assistance, care, rehabilitation and reintegration. 58. The Committee endorses the recommendations made to the State party by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict (see A/54/430, paras. 122-127 and E/CN.4/2000/71, paras. 60-71) and recommends that the State party, in cooperation with the international community, urgently implement these recommendations in order to give the highest priority to the protection of children from the negative effects of the armed conflict. 59. The Committee welcomes the State party’s signature of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict and encourages the State party to ratify and implement it as soon as possible.