Ei-iE

The most recent global estimates suggest that one in ten children between the ages of 5 and 14 is involved in child labour, preventing them from attending school. In Sub Saharan Africa, where the incidence is at its highest, a reported 21% of children are forced to work.

Statement by Education International on the Day Against Child Labour

The most recent global estimates suggest that one in ten children between the ages of 5 and 14 is involved in child labour, preventing them from attending school. In Sub Saharan Africa, where the incidence is at its highest, a reported 21% of children are forced to work.

Attendance at school from an early age removes children from the labour market and provides them the opportunity to acquire the skills needed for future decent employment. Education and training are key drivers of social and economic development and require public money and accountability. In many countries, schools which are available to the disadvantaged families are under-resourced, ill-equipped and not adequately staffed.

“Quality teaching and well supported education personnel provide the essential foundation of a child’s life,” says Fred van Leeuwen, General Secretary of Education International as education unions worldwide prepare to mark the World Day against Child Labour (WDACL) on 12 June 2015. ”Both of these tools provide powerful ways in which we can help eradicate child labour by addressing the root causes of the problem, including inequality and the lack of a quality education.”

An integral part of the right to education is for all governments to ensure that education is of good quality, which means not only providing trained and supported teachers, but also that what is learned is relevant and broad.

With this year’s theme of quality education, EI is tabling specific demands, in line with the Declaration adopted by the World Education Forum, which met last month in Incheon, Korea:

• education to be recognised as a public good, a fundamental human right and a basis for guaranteeing the realization of other rights and a key to achieving poverty eradication;
• the provision of 12 years of publicly-funded, equitable quality primary and secondary education, of which at least nine years are free and compulsory, leading to relevant learning outcomes and ensuring that all children are in school and are learning;
• the provision of at least one year of free and compulsory quality pre-primary education;
• and that teachers and educators be empowered, well-trained, professionally-qualified, motivated and supported within well-resourced, efficient and effectively governed systems.

Van Leeuwen says that “Better learning opportunities are the gate to dignity, inclusion, decent employment, workers’ rights and social protection. Teachers and education are keys to all the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals”.