Let children learn, not earn
Lazarus
Sauti
The latest International Labour Organisation (ILO) global
estimates on child labour indicates that the continent of Africa has the largest
rate of children in economic activity – 28.4 per cent of all 5-14 year-olds,
compared to 14.8 per cent for Asia and the Pacific and 9 per cent for Latin
America.
“Sub-Saharan Africa has the greatest incidence of
children in economic activity, and it ranks second behind Asia in absolute
terms, with 58.2 million children working in the same age group.
“The persistent challenges of widespread and extreme
poverty, high population growth, the AIDS pandemic, recurrent food crises, as
well as political unrest and conflict clearly exacerbate the problem,” notes the
ILO
– a United Nations agency dealing with labour issues, particularly
international labour standards, social protection, and work opportunities for
all.
The UN agency adds: “In the region (of Africa), 38.7
million children ages 5 to 17 are in worst forms of child labour (hazardous
work).
“Of particular concern are child trafficking, the use of
children in armed conflict, small-scale mining, hazardous work in agriculture,
industry and services, informal economy, commercial sexual exploitation and
domestic labour.”
Belinda
Chanda, a development economist serving as an Islamabad-based (Pakistan)
Programme Analyst with the ILO, says child labour is harmful for children.
“Child
labour, other than being unethical, is mentally, physically, and socially
harmful for children. It involves the sale and trafficking of children, debt
bondage, and forced or compulsory labour, including work that is likely to harm
the health, safety or morals of children,” she said.
Sadly,
asserts Chanda, child labour interferes with children’s schooling.
“Children
in most African countries spend their childhood in workrooms and not in
classrooms despite the fact that the best place for a child to be in is school,
a platform that gives him or her much needed confidence to dream,” she said.
It
is, therefore, noble for African countries to let children learn, not earn; and
mechanisms to keep children in schools should aim at flexible scheduling of
classes.
The
World Bank, an international financial institution that provides loans to
developing countries for capital programmes, agrees that strategies to let
children learn, not earn should target early childhood programmes, distance
learning, bilingual education as well as flexible scheduling of classes.
Observing
the World Day against Child Labour and supporting this year’s theme, “No to
Child Labour. Yes, to Quality Education”, the United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF) – a UN programme
that provides long-term humanitarian and developmental assistance to children
and mothers in developing countries, said free and
compulsory education of good quality is key to ending child labour.
“Quality
education gives children the opportunity to gain knowledge and skills. Offering
free, but compulsory education of good quality is, therefore, key to ending
child labour over and above eradicating poverty in developing countries,” the
UNICEF affirmed.
It
adds: “Government sectors and other stakeholders in the education and
development fraternity need to encourage the expansion of primary and secondary
education in their different forms. The best way is simply to make primary and
secondary education free and accessible to all.”
Guy
Ryder, ILO director-general, believes strong plans, policies and strategies that promote consistent and effective free, compulsory
and quality education for all children are needed if
developing countries are to stop child labour.
“National policies should be directed towards removing
children and young people from hazardous jobs and, of course, towards removing
the hazards in the workplace. They should also ensure access to quality primary,
secondary and tertiary education as well as investment in the teaching
profession,” he said.
The World Report on Child Labour (2015) agrees: “Coherent
policies, targeted towards removing children and young people from hazardous
jobs, are critical if Africa and other developing states are to keep their children
in schools as well as to transform socio-economically.”
Chanda suggested that national strategies and policies
should be in sync with regional, continental as well as international
instruments and/or conventions that discourage child labour.
Provisions of national constitutions and the African Charter on the
Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) as well as the United Conventions on
the Rights of the Child need to be exercised in order to protect children from all forms of economic
exploitation as well as to promote every child’s right to
education.
The
Foundation for the Development of Africa (FDA) – a private, ‘not-for-profit’, non-membership, organisation actively
serving Africa by promoting processes conducive to sustainable development – believes changing the attitudes of parents, children, employers,
teachers, unions, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), civil society and
governments in child labour affected countries is critical for the
promotion and development of the child’s personality, talents as well as mental
and physical abilities.
Further, the Humanist Institute
for Cooperation with Developing Countries (Hivos), a Dutch organisation for development that
provides financial support to organisations in Africa, Latin America and Asia, feels
it is the mandate of concerned organisations to support governments through
creating structures that will keep children full-time in schools.
Honestly, children are the future of Africa. They are
flowers of the continental garden. Consequently, it should be every
individual’s duty to protect them – and one sure way of protecting them and
promoting their development is to let them learn, not earn.
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