44  Promotion of the development of nursery education (early childhood);  Establishment and putting into practice of a plan aimed at the generalization of basic education for all children of school going age;  Preparation and implementation of Government policy in skills training, literacy education for adults and permanent education. In April 2000, Burundi participated in the Global Education Forum held in Dakar which had established for the countries six major objectives in the area of Basic Education. Burundi undertook to attain these goals which can be summarized as follows:  The protection and education of early childhood;  Primary Education: access and retention;  Education and Training Programme responding to the needs of the youth and of adults;  Literacy education and basic education for adults;  Gender parity in education;  Quality of Education. 17.2. The Millennium Development Goals In Burundi the main points of these objectives is recaptured in the different sectorial policies of the Ministry of Education. This was in 1991, 2001 and 2005. The general objectives of these sectorial policies can be summarized as follows: - Bringing the education services closer to the beneficiaries by means of a decentralization policy of the educational sector; - Universal education at the primary level projected for 2010; - The eradication of illiteracy especially among women; - The promotion of girls’ education at all levels; - Reduction of the regional differences and disparities through the generalization and periodical updating of the national and regional school map; - Free school fees: this became a reality in Burundi for the primary level from the 2005-2006 school year.