Education for Child Workers

It is disheartening to see children working hard instead of going to school just because their families could not afford to provide their basic necessities e.g. food, clothing, shelter, and could not send them to school due to lack of financial resources. I  would like to believe that it is not enough reason for these children to stop learning just because their families are economically challenged. There are alternative learning systems that can be availed of as discussed in the following article:

Photo courtesy of http://www.ilo.org/

Non-traditional education boosts child workers’ access to education

By Jerome Yanson

Technology is now paving the way for the world’s child workers to be educated. An estimated 250 million child workers worldwide, one hundred fifty-three million or 61% or which can be found in Asia, may finally gain tools for them to eventually be drawn away from child labor.

In a policy memo on “Reducing Child Labor through Education: Innovative Uses of Technology,” Hawaii-based Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL) suggested an alternative technology-based solution to the inability of child workers, particularly those in the rural areas, to avail of education.

PREL recognized the limitations of traditional education services to reach child laborers in the rural areas and the frustrations of formal school systems to meet the basic learning objectives. The memo pointed out that low-cost technology could be an effective and appropriate alternative in bringing education closer not only to child laborers but also to their parents and community.

Costs and Access Problems     

For an estimated four million Filipino child workers aged between 5 to 17 years old, PREL’s solution is indeed good news. In a survey on working children done in 2001, one-third of the surveyed child workers did not attend school due to loss of interest and high cost of schooling. A majority of them, the survey showed, dropped out of school because of high costs. Even with free primary and secondary education, most poor households simply cannot afford to send their children to school because the attendant costs are too much for a low-income family.

In most poor rural areas, many children would rather work than go to school on order to earn money and help provide for their family’s basic needs. Many if not all of them are not properly paid and are exposed to hazardous working conditions.

A study also found out that some Filipino children stop going to school because of lack of access to schools. The distant location of schools from the child’s dwelling or place of work hinders the pursuit of primary education. Access to schools is also limited due to lack of classrooms or schools, high student-to-teacher ratios, high percentage of unqualified and under-qualified teachers and poor physical school environment particularly in poor regions.

Solving the Problem

PREL offers some alternative solutions to these constraints. One alternative is the use of satellite video and internet. Delivery through low-cost satellite dish or antenna, receiver and television can provide access to educational programming. Strategic placement of a television in a school or community center, PREL says, can have an enormous impact on the learning potential in the classroom, allowing on-demand content streaming at any time of the day or week. Meanwhile, access to Internet will allow schools to download educational materials for the classroom, providing teachers with new resources for instructions.

Another alternative is the use of broadcast radio and television. Television and radio stations can broadcast and rebroadcast educational and community development programming at different times to target the largest possible audience. Radio and television broadcast makes instructions and information accessible to a large audience with cheapest requirements such as simple transistor radio and television set.

Multimedia and print materials are also effective means of alternative learning. Computers, VCDs, DVDs and other audio-video materials placed in a school or community center can provide education and community development information as stand-alone training or as supplement to other training mediums. Printed materials such as magazines, flyers and pamphlets can be used to disseminate information about education and community development programs against child labor.

These innovative ways of using technology as a form of non-traditional education can be an effective alternative method for child laborers to gain knowledge outside formal schooling system, for their parents to be aware of the physical, emotional and psychological effects of child labor on children, and for the community to strengthen partnership with community organizations toward mobilizing the people to reduce child labor, particularly in remote and rural communities and, consequently, reintegrate child laborers into the formal educational system. (Published in Bata Man, Vol. V, No. 2, July 2005, Manila, Philippines. Bata Man is an advocacy magazine for child labor published by DOLE, ILO, UNICEF, DepED, DSWD, PIA, TUCP and VFA)