E/C.12/FRA/CO/4 particular, the Committee observes that the long distances that indigenous children in French Guiana must travel to school limits their access to education or prompts them to drop out of school. The Committee is also concerned by the fact that many children have never attended school and by the high dropout rate in Mayotte. In addition, the Committee is concerned by the fact that little effort has been made to adapt the content of school curricula to overseas cultural environments. 54. The Committee requests the State party to adopt a rights-based approach to the promotion of education in overseas departments and regions and overseas communities and to place priority on the availability, accessibility, quality and adaptability of school instruction. It urges the State party, inter alia, to: (a) Establish a detailed package of measures for achieving the full realization of the principle of compulsory primary education that is free of charge for all, especially in Mayotte; (b) Remove barriers to access to education and expand the availability of schooling in reasonably accessible locations by providing transportation for schoolchildren and by developing support facilities and accommodations for children who leave their village in order to continue their studies; (c) Include the effort to discourage students from dropping out of school as one of the priorities in the education module of the Mayotte 2025 strategy paper; (d) Reinforce the teaching of regional languages and instruction in those languages in the overseas departments and regions and overseas communities; (e) Develop teaching approaches that are suited to the needs of students within their own social and cultural environment and to the needs of local communities. 55. The Committee invites the State party to refer to its general comment No. 13 (1999) on the right to education. Cultural and linguistic rights 56. While mindful of the adoption of policies for the promotion of regional languages and the amendment in 2008 of article 75 (1) of the Constitution, which now states that “regional languages form part of the heritage of France”, the Committee finds it regrettable that the State party considers that those policies and the constitutional amendment do not constitute the recognition of a right or freedom for regional or linguistic groups or the indigenous peoples of overseas territories (art. 15). 57. The Committee recommends that the State party recognize and promote the right of members of regional or minority linguistic groups and, in overseas departments and regions and overseas communities, of indigenous peoples to use their own language as one aspect of their right to take part in cultural life, not only in private, but also in public, in areas where regional languages are traditionally spoken. The Committee wishes to draw the State party’s attention to paragraphs 32 and 33 of its general comment No. 21 (2009) on the right of everyone to take part in cultural life. D. Other recommendations 58. The Committee invites the State party to recognize the competence of the Committee under article 10 on inter-State communications and under article 11 on an inquiry procedure of the Optional Protocol to the Covenant. GE.16-12027 11