CRC/C/GEO/CO/3 page 13 54. The Committee recommends that the State party take steps to improve the standard of living of children as a matter of priority, giving particular attention to housing, water and sanitation. In this regard, the State party is urged to allocate sufficient funds in order to counteract the persistent inequality and effectively reduce the disparities and improve the extremely low standard of living of, inter alia, families with several children, refugee and internally displaced families, and families living in rural and remote areas. In particular, increased access to basic services including clean running water and sewerage disposal should be targeted as a priority. 55. The Committee urges the State party to mainstream children and prioritize their needs in a separate chapter its poverty reduction strategy, the “Programme on Economic Growth and Elimination of Poverty”. This should ensure the implementation of programmes that specifically promote the full development of children and protect them against detrimental effects of growing up in poverty and extreme poverty. The Committee further recommends that the State party monitor the poverty situation of children regularly and take urgent measures to address all negative indicators. 6. Education, leisure and cultural activities (arts. 28, 29 and 31 of the Convention) 56. The Committee welcomes the enactment of the Law on General Education, in 2005, and notes with appreciation the increase in the allocation of State resources to education, particularly in the 2006 and 2007 budgets, as well as the progress of the programme to develop school infrastructure and the intensified teachers’ in-service training. Nevertheless, the Committee remains concerned about the general quality of education and about the poor infrastructure of many schools, as well as the growing disparity in educational standards between rural and urban areas. The Committee is concerned about the hidden costs of education which may hinder access for children from low-income families, and that drop-out rates are progressively higher in later stages of schooling, particularly in rural areas. 57. The Committee recommends that the State party: (a) Continue to increase budget allocations to the educational sector; (b) Focus on an overall improvement of the quality of education provided, particularly in rural and minority regions, by, inter alia, ensuring that teachers are fully qualified and trained; (c) Take further measures to facilitate the accessibility to education of children from all groups in society by, inter alia, improving material provisions in schools and eliminate additional costs of schooling so that no child is discriminated in their enjoyment of the right to education due to the financial circumstance of his/her parents; (d) Take measures to increase school attendance and reduce dropout and repetition rates, including by providing assistance and counselling to children; and