CRC/C/NGA/CO/3-4 7. Education, leisure and cultural activities (arts. 28, 29 and 31 of the Convention) Education, including vocational training and guidance 71. The Committee notes with appreciation steps taken by the State party to implement its free Universal Basic Education Programme (1999) and measures to improve quality of education, including a gender review of the curricula. It also welcomes the increased budgetary allocations for the education sector, the increase in primary school enrolment, and the improvement in infrastructure. The Committee notes the adoption of the Vocational Educational Initiative and the development of special vocational training programmes to assist children from low socio-economic status and for children from other vulnerable groups. It also notes with appreciation the ongoing process of integrating religious schools into the formal school system and for providing them with trained maalams (teachers). The Committee remains seriously concerned however about: (a) The high percentage of the primary school age population that is not enrolled in schools; (b) The very low national primary school completion rate and the low net secondary school enrolment rate; (c) Persisting wide geographical disparities in terms of enrolment rates and educational facilities; (d) Persisting gender inequalities in enrolment and retention rates in the northern states; (e) The existence of fees and the absence of the right to free and compulsory education in the Constitution and at information that parents who refuse to enroll their children in schools are subject to sanctions; (f) The inadequate and inaccessibility of vocational training programmes for many children, including children in conflict with the law. 72. The Committee urges the State party, taking into account its general comment no. 1 (2001) on the aims of education: (a) To ensure that primary education is effectively free and compulsory for all children without discrimination, including by abolishing school fees; (b) To ensure that the right to free and compulsory education is incorporated in the Constitution within the context of the constitutional review; (c) To continue to increase public expenditure for education, in particular primary education, with specific attention to addressing gender and regional disparities in the enjoyment of the right to education, and to enhance quality of education, including by ensuring that parents are not required to bear any financial burden for education and learning materials; (d) To continue to strengthen its efforts to integrate religious learning institutions, including the alamajiri schools, into the formal school system and to provide teachers education to maalams; (e) To promote pre-school education for children and make special attempts to include children from vulnerable and school-distant groups at early ages; 18