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Working children and education

Consolidated good practices in education and child labour

Developing good practices to help eliminate child labour by consolidating education

Authors: M. Jankanish
Publisher: International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour , 2007

Full text of document

This publication includes a broad selection of ILO-IPEC's “good practices” in using education as a key tool to eliminate child labour which will hopefully inspire, motivate and guide those who are actively working to support working children or former working children, their families and their communities.  It aims to provide them with effective alternatives to impart education, skills training and related services to help all involved to recognise the dangers of child labour, recognise the importance of quality education and training, and ensure that all children benefit from these and can aspire to a better future and quality of life.

On the basis of this experience, the report highlights some key underlying principles that characterise some of the good practices that have been emerging, for example:

  • multi-sectoral approaches have a much more effective and sustained impact in the elimination and prevention of child labour, combining the involvement of relevant government line ministries, social partners and civil society
  • education is a necessary, but not sufficient, intervention in the case of children working in hazardous and exploitative labour. In addition to receiving education of good quality and relevance, working children also need to benefit from a protective rights-based environment and access to legal, health and other services
  • child labour must be mainstreamed into Poverty Reducation Strategy Papers (PRSP), EFA, national plans of action and other resource allocation frameworks
  • partnerships within the broader framework of the UN system and other international and national organisations must be actively pursued and implemented
  • particular attention should be paid to the situation of girls’ work and education through gender specific strategies, and to the situation of particularly vulnerable groups of children, for example, the very young
  • formal education strategies are vital to the long-term success of interventions
  • practices should be grounded in country-specific realities when dealing with the issue of child labour, while recognising broader issues that may go beyond any one specific country.