The provision of education is one of the essence functions legitimizing the modern nations. Behind education one finds the building of citizenship, demands for social and national identification, as well as the preparation of the labour force for the national economy. The moulding of a working education system remains a key challenge for new states and states emerging from conflict. Education can be an important medium of political mobilization or liberation during conflict. In this present global village a child who is not educated is incapacitated in every sphere of life, viz a person sees abilities in severe physical disability but trivial and frivolous if not educated. In coming years, a society that does not educate its children will be disabled in terms of the economic productivity and social welfare of its people (Anderson, 1992, p.8). The returns to education at a personal level are high. By the same token, lack of education can be a serious social and economic handicap. Quality schooling gives children a better chance for a standard, healthy and secure future. Basic skills such as reading, writing and arithmetic, facilitate admittance to good employment in adulthood, as well as providing essential information which proves helpful to both adults and children for solving problems and making important decisions. Education also brings the rewards of confidence and self-esteem associated with achievement and encourages the development of analytical and reasoning powers. Education is a major instrument for change and social development which plays an important role in empowering the child economically and socially and assists the marginalized population out of poverty. Education also provides the children with the means to participate fully in their communities (UNESCO, 2000). Accelerated progress in education is critical for the all-round development of any nation and the achievement of the wider Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in areas such as poverty reduction, nutrition, child survival and maternal health (Psacharopoulos and Woodhall, 1985; Lucas, 1988; Barro, 1991; Mankiw, Romer and Weil, 1992). According to the United Nations Children Fund, education is a fundamental human right and a key factor in reducing poverty and child labour as well as promoting development. The world recognized the importance and improvement in access to all in education systems through various international frameworks that can be traced back to 1948 when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted. In this bill of rights, article 26 has a provision for a right to education for all. With the objective to provide education to the children and prepare them as the future citizens who will be able to contribute to the process of development of their societies and families and help them live a normal life, hundreds and thousands of schools all over the world are providing educational opportunities to the children. Yet, the rough estimates suggest that over 100 million children have no access to primary education. Over 200 million children between 5 and 14 years of age are working world-wide. This figure represents one- fifth of the total population of girls and boys in this age group. About 111 million children are in what has been termed as “hazardous work” which refers to forms of labour which are likely to have adverse effects on the child’s safety, health, and moral development. Nearly 10 million of these children are engaged in some form of slave labour, armed conflict, prostitution or pornography, or other illicit activities, simply all types of trafficking. Some observers believe that these figures understate the real magnitude of child labour. The implications of this situation are significant, complex, and multidimensional. The hazardous and worst forms of child labour are of universal concern, given the obvious harm that they inflict on the lives of these children and their possibilities for a hopeful future. Child labour also has important economic implications. Most notable are the substantial future income losses that working children will incur because of the negative consequences working will have on their human capital, including their health and education. Since children are more likely to work and not go to school if their parents worked as children, the economic losses associated with child labour and their implications for poverty are often transmitted across generations. Studies have concluded that eliminating child labour and putting these children into education would have huge aggregate developmental benefits. Gains would primarily be through the added productive capacity of future generations that had the benefit of education, as opposed to having worked as children. Very recently, the ILO (International Labour Organisation)(2004) has published estimates that the discounted present value of this economic gain would be in the order of US$5 trillion over the 2000-2020 period.
As the international community rallies around the Millenium Development Goals Convention on the Rights of the Child and, even more so, the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention reflect a recognition that child labour is a complex phenomenon, with various forms, diverse underlying causes, and different meanings in different cultural contexts. Understanding these realities sharpens the discussion on child labour and builds consensus on appropriate responses. It would be difficult for any concerned individual or organization to not support the goal of Convention 182 to eliminate children working in the unconditional worst forms (slavery, prostitution, armed conflict, drug trafficking, etc.) or in work that is unsafe, unhealthy, or hazardous to mental, emotional, and physical development. However, while consensus may have been established against the very visible forms of child labour targeted by Convention 182, these do not describe the work life for tens of millions of working children. The reality is quite complicated. The vast majority of child workers are involved in agricultural work, typically in family-run farms. In Africa, where the incidence of child labour is highest, rural children are at least twice as likely to be working as urban children. A significant proportion of working children are enrolled in school as well, although there is a lot of evidence confirming the adverse impact of child labour on educational achievement. Reflecting this complex reality, addressing child labour and, thus, achieving universal education goals requires complex approaches. Effective policy responses depend “upon recognizing that most children work with or for their parents in economies where markets are underdeveloped and the legal and political infrastructure is thin” (Bhalotra and Tzannatos, 2003: 54). Understanding household decision-making and the incentives and constraints facing families is essential, then, to comprehend why child labour exists and to consider interventions that can effectively address the underlying causes. It is true that the incidence of child labour is associated with poverty, so policies that alleviate poverty are likely to have beneficial outcomes. In April 2000, the international community committed to Education For All (EFA), a partnership to achieve education for every citizen in every society. This initiative will not meet its objectives by focusing only on the education system itself. Child labour, of course, has already received considerable attention. Most countries have long had prescriptive legislation as well as compulsory education laws. At the international level, child labour has been the focus of various conventions and recommendations. Most significant have been the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) and two ILO conventions, the Minimum Age Convention (No. 138, 1973) and the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (No. 182, 1999). As Myers (2001) has argued, the content of these conventions reflects an evolution in thinking within the international community about how children’s rights should be applied to child labour and education.
(The author is associated with World Peace Institute of United Nations. Views are exclusively his own)