| Last update: Nov 2007 |
Child labour and education
A recent paper by UNICEF staff analyzes MICS and DHS data on child labour and school attendance from 18 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. This page provides some highlights from the study. The full paper is available at the following link.
Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the worldwide highest share of child labourers. In the 18 countries in this region with data on child labour, 38 percent of all children between 7 and 14 years of age are engaged in work that can be considered harmful to their development. Among these children, slightly more than half (20 percent of the total) also attend school while another 18 percent are only engaged in labour (see the graph below). Overall, 60 percent of all children between 7 and 14 years attend school. 21 percent of all children are neither in school nor do they engage in labour. These children may, however, perform work that is not considered labour, for example household work for less than 28 hours per week.
Although many children manage to combine work and school attendance, there is a clear tradeoff between the two activities. The following graph plots the child labour and school attendance rates in 18 African countries. In countries with a high share of child labourers, school attendance tends to be low. At the extreme ends of the distribution are Swaziland, with a school attendance rate of 78 percent and a child labour rate of 10 percent, and Niger, with a school attendance rate of 30 percent and a child labour rate of 72 percent.
A disaggregation of the data on child labour, shown in the graph below, reveals large disparities that are hidden by the national averages. Overall, 38 percent of children between 7 and 14 years of age from the 18 analyzed countries are engaged in child labour.
Children between 7 and 10 years are somewhat more likely to be labourers than children between 11 and 14 years. This is due to the definition of child labour: a boy or girl up to 11 years of age only has to spend one hour on economic work to be considered a child labourer. Older children have to spend at least 14 hours on economic work to be counted as child labourers.
Because of the inclusion of household chores in the analysis, we are able to see that the share of child labourers among girls is the same as among boys, about 38 percent. On the other hand, the area of residence is strongly associated with child labour: rural children (43 percent) work much more than urban children (25 percent).
The highest share of child labourers is found among the poorest 20 percent of all households. In this group, 45 percent of all children are engaged in labour. By comparison, a child from the richest household quintile is almost half as likely to be working (24 percent child labourers). Lastly, the education of the primary caretaker is also associated with the probability of child labour. If the mother or caretaker has at least primary education, her children are less likely to work than children of caretakers without a formal education.
Reference
Gibbons, Elizabeth D., Friedrich Huebler, and Edilberto Loaiza. 2005. Child labour, education and the principle of non-discrimination. In Human rights and development: Towards mutual reinforcement, edited by Philip Alston and Mary Robinson. New York: Oxford University Press.