gnc academic anthology

Child Labour: The Factor That Keeps Children Out Of School

What can actually be understood by the word “Child Labour”? Child labour is usually defined as work or job that robs children of their youth, potential and dignity, and is detrimental to the physical and mental development. Hence, child labour can be referred as to work or job that is mentally, socially, morally or physically detrimental to children as well as getting in the way of their schooling and education.

According to the 2020 Child Labour Global Estimates, a total of 160 million children around the world, in which 89.3 million of it are children aged 5 to 11 years old, 35.6 million are those aged 12 to 14 years old, and 35 million children aged 15 to 17 years old. Although there were signs of showing positive progress where the number of child labour decreased in the year 2016, but it was just a short-lived celebration as the number of child labour in the year 2016 until 2020 shows a concerning rise among the children aged 5 to 11. As seen in the figure provided above, more than one third of children in child labour are not in school and getting the education that they need. It is especially alarming that a huge number of children in child labour who are out of school are those who are within the age range for compulsory education. 28.8 percent of children aged 5 to 11 years old and 35.2 percent of children aged 12 to 14 years old in child labour are not in school and due to this matter, their chances of getting decent work in their youth, adulthood as well as their overall future life would be severely impacted. With that being said, these data put a huge spotlight on the fact that child labour maintains as an important issue that deprives children from getting the education that they need from school.

There are a few factors that drives children to be involved in child labour and caused them to be unable to fully receive a proper education. The most prominent factor that pushes these children to get a job and participate in child labour is due to economic hardship. Most of the time, child labour happens when families of the children face financial hardships or uncertainties that may be caused by poverty, the caregiver’s sudden deterioration of health or job loss for the breadwinner of the family. As a result, most children were not able to attend school due to being extremely exhausted from the job that largely consumed their time and energy. In other cases, some children resorted to work due to the lack of access to a quality and free school. Additionally, the perceptions of family towards the value of education and the potential profit in the job market can also influence the choices made that are related to the children’s schooling.

With the appearance of the Covid-19 virus back in 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) had declared the virus outbreak as a pandemic and due to this, the number of children in low-income households had increased by an estimated number of 42 million. These affected families have suffered from loss of job and incomes, as well as reduction in job payments. To cope within the times of crises, families decided to put their children into child labour. The closures of schools due to the pandemic added more to the risk of children participating in child labour, especially those who are in helpless situations as they have a higher probability to get a job when school is not a choice. Consequently, it is mostly hard for children to continue their education once they leave school and enter paid jobs.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) stated in their 2020 Child Labour Global Estimates report that the data collected by them is alarming as this shows that the global progress against child labour has stalled for the first time since they began publishing these reports twenty years ago. The increasing number of children involved in child labour serves as a crucial reality check in fulfilling the international commitment to put a stop on child labour by the year 2025. Without a robust response as well as the will and resources to take actions now in handling this issue, the expected time to end child labour will continue to expand many years into the future and the education emergency may escalate into a child labour emergency.

European Commission. (2020). Child labour is keeping millions of children out of school. https://international- partnerships.ec.europa.eu/news-and-events/stories/child-labour- keeping-millions-children-out-school_en

International Labour Organization, & United Nations Children's Fund. (2021). Child Labour: Global Estimates 2020, Trends And The Road Forward. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/--- ipec/documents/publication/wcms_797515.pdf

UNICEF. (2021, June 9). Child Labour. https://www.unicef.org/protection/child-labour