Content and purpose
The report on the relationship between child labour and other variables such as children’s education, health, and household well-being should begin with a short discussion of previous research into the possible consequences of child labour, and the difficulties encountered in these exercises. Potential consequences of child labour include the effects of work on the schooling and health of boys and girls, as well as its effect on household income and household well-being.
This information should help the reader to contextualize the results of the current survey and to compare them with research results from other countries. Differences between the results obtained in other countries and the current results may suggest areas for future in-depth research.
Following this, the results of the current survey should be presented and discussed. This chapter should focus on the –
– observed relationships between child labour and different aspects of children’s formal education and health issues; and
– perceived importance of child labour for household well-being, as reported in the survey.
Sample tables (see Appendix F)
Education
Attendance
– Number and per cent of child labourers and not child labourers who are currently attending school, by sex, age group, urban/rural residency, and region (table 44).
– Number and per cent of child labourers 5 to 17 years attending and not attending school by industry (table 45).
– Median number of hours worked per week for child labourers 5 to 17 years attending and not attending school by sex, age, and urban/rural residency (table 46).
– Number and per cent of all child labourers 5 to 17 years who are currently attending school and report that work affects their regular attendance or studies by sex and age (table 47).
Reported reasons for non-attendance
– Per cent of child labourers 5 to 17 years, by reported reason for non-attendance, by sex, age, and urban/rural residency (table 48).
Grade-age distortions
– Grade-age distortions for child labourers and not child labourers 5 to 17 years attending school by age (table 49).
Grade repetition
– Number and per cent of all child labourers and not child labourers 5 to 17 years who are repeaters, by sex and age group (table 50).
School dropping out
– Number and per cent of all child labourers and not child labourers 5 to 17 years who dropped out of school, by sex and age group (table 51).
Health and safety
– Number and per cent of all child labourers 5 to 17 years who are not supervised at work by an adult by sex, age, urban/rural residency, region, and occupation (table 52). – Number and per cent of all child labourers 5 to 17 years who reported working in
hazardous conditions by sex, age group, and industry (table 53).
Household well-being
– Number and per cent of child labourers by reported effect on household if child stops working by sex, age, and urban/rural residency (table 54).
Discussion and analysis
Formal education and effects of work. Information regarding formal education aims
clarify the affect of labour on children’s schooling. The a priori assumption is that child labour has an adverse effect on children’s schooling because (a) it takes time away from their regular attendance and/or homework, and (b) causes enough fatigue to interfere with learning. A more complete picture requires discussion of issues including school attendance and how this varies not only between sexes, provinces/regions, and age groups, but also by industry and hours worked. This might better indicate which industries intrude more on children’s schooling, and how the ability to combine work and school attendance might depend on work intensity. Another important item of analysis is reported reasons for non-attendance, with special attention to declared reasons related to work. The educational system might be responsible for other significant factors, and this information should also be of interest for policy and programme design.
Distortions in grade attended/age data. Distortions between grade attended and age
of the child 14 may be an indicator of boys and girls’ normal progress in school, as well as
of school entry at an inappropriate age.
– High distortion rates would reveal that children are
! not entering school when they should be, or
! progressing more slowly than they should.
Repetition. High repetition rates should be interpreted as evidence of problems in
children’s normal school progress only with reference to the previous year.
Dropping out. The concept of children dropping out of school is narrower than that
of non-attendance, since children who drop out did attend school previously, whereas those who do not attend could, in any given case, have attended school previously or not. The dropout rate then, reveals information about children who did attend school at some point but had to leave the formal educational system for some reason.
Difficulty of capturing issues of health and safety at work. Information gathered in
the national child labour surveys can at most suggest a sketchy picture of the real hazards faced by boys and girls at work, and the effects of child labour on health.
– Adult supervision at work should indicate a higher probability of more safety at work, although more information is required to establish this.
– Information regarding children who report work in hazardous conditions should also indicate the magnitude of dangers faced.
– The report should also discuss survey information regarding the incidence of accidents and illnesses reportedly related to work.
Perceived effect on household of child ceasing work. Where the boy or girl stops
working, respondent data may indicate that the household: (a) does not feel dependent on the child’s contribution; (b) feels somewhat dependent; or (c) feels very dependent on it.
Issues and considerations
Observed education and health problems cannot be attributed with certainty to child labour. Analysts should provide careful interpretation of the apparent relationships
between child labour and schooling and health variables. Observed correlations do not yield proof of causality, since other relevant variables such as socio-economic status are not being held constant in cross-tabulations. Adequate analysis of the lagged effect of child labour on schooling and health, furthermore, requires use of panel data.
Effect on household of child ceasing work. The analyst must remember that answers
to related questions are only reported perceptions and not established facts. This information, however, could be of interest for child labour intervention design.
14 The starting age for the first grade of primary school is often assumed to be 6 years but, in
reality, it varies from country to country. Country-specific information on the age corresponding to a particular grade can be deduced from the country’s legislation on education.
Sources and references
For information on important research in the field of child labour refer to the ILO/IPEC publication: Annotated bibliography on child labour (ILO, 2003h). For interesting papers on the possible consequences of child labour and the issues surrounding these studies, see Rosati, F.; Rossi, M. (October 2001): Children’s working hours, school
enrolment and human capital accumulation: Evidence from Pakistan and Nicaragua; and
O’Donnell, O.; van Doorslaer, E.; Rosati, F. (January 2002): Child labour and health:
Evidence and research issues.