Child Labour Essay

Lots has been said about child labour and in these reports there are clearly stated concerns about the effects of child labour on children‘s academic performance and its long run impact on human capital development. Situations where children of school going age are engaged in active work, does it at the expense of school. The situation existed even before Ghana attained her independence in 1957. Generally, attendance rates for males are higher than that of females but the differences are minimal because they all are geared towards the downfall of society. Often there is a mismatch between school calendar or timetable and household duties (e.g. fetching water, collecting firewood, cooking, caring for younger siblings and sick family members) resulting in some children not being able to attend school. In Ghana the cooperative effort of the government, voluntary agencies and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have employed their resources into improving the lot of children especially in northern Ghana. The objectives of the UN‘s MDG compact, which are reflected in the original poverty reduction proposals of Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy, included raising the access of all the nation‘s children and youth to a defined minimum of basic education, irrespective of the economic circumstances of their parents or guardians. Child labourers lack concentration in class, end up producing bad results which could lead to school drop outs. One of the immediate consequences is streetism, a spear header of E. Sutherland‘s Differential Association- a process whereby deviance or crime is learned from others. This negative phenomenon puts the Ghanaian society in a pathological state since the impact will be an astronomical increase in crime rate. There is the need for further interventions if this problem of child labour would be reduced to the barest minimum in Ghana and especially in the study area. The impact of this phenomenon is diversified in nature and need multi-faceted solutions. In light of the above issues the problem of child labour in the study area needs to be given more attention. Though a lot of studies have been conducted about the problem it still persists. In order to address it there is the need to have a clear understanding of the nature, causes and trends of child labour. The effects of child labour on children‘s academic performance calls for further investigations. Research Questions In view of the above discussion, four questions are posed which the study will seek to address: †¢ What child labour is and how widespread is the phenomenon of child labour in Madina? †¢ Which factors influence family‘s decision to subject the child to work in the study area? †¢ How does child labour affect children‘s academic performance in the study area? †¢ How can the problem be addressed by different stakeholders? Objectives of the study The broad objective of this study is to investigate and understand the dynamics of child labour, assess the extent to which it has affected children‘s academic performance in the study area and to propose policy recommendations to improve human capital development which is a key to national development. The specific objectives of the study include the following: †¢ To examine what child labour is and how widespread the phenomenon of child labour is in Madina. †¢ Some factors that cause child labour in the study area. †¢ The effects of child labour on academic performance in the study area. †¢ To give recommendations to inform policy to mitigate the activities of child labour. HYPOTHESIS The higher the engagement in child labour, the poorer you perform academically. Theoretical Framework Theory on Child Labour Over the years many theoretical perspectives of child labour have been propounded. Some of the more common models which try to explain child labour are the household bargaining models. Bargaining models may be of two distinct kinds, depending on who the agents involved i n the bargaining are. Intra-household bargaining models – whose main agenda is often not child labour but general household behaviour – assume that the bargaining occurs within the family between parents and the child (children). Solutions to these models usually specify that a child‘s labour supply depends on the adult wages and child‘s wage that prevail on the market. In the extra household approach, it is assumed that children have negligible bargaining power in households, and are basically an instrument for the parents‘ maximization of utility. These models usually treat employers and parents of the children as the two main factors involved in the bargaining process. These models- especially the extra-household bargaining model – sharply contrast with altruist models of child labour, in which the parents are altruistically concerned with the child‘s welfare. Furthermore, the altruistic class of models is differentiated from bargaining models, as they assume multiple equilibriums. Foremost among the altruistic models is presented in Basu and Van (1998), which provides a framework for investigating how child labour and adult labour are interdependent in economic activity and under what conditions child labour emerges in the labour market. The main findings in their paper are essentially derived from two axioms referred to as the ―Luxuryâ€â€" and ―Substitutionâ€â€" axioms, respectively. Luxury Axiom: A family sends the children to the labour market only if the family‘s income from non-child labour sources drops below the subsistence level. Substitution Axiom: Child labour and adult labour are substitutes from a firm‘s point of view. Basu and Van (1998) show that there exist two multiple equilibriums in which (1) both adults and children work with low wages (―badâ€â€" equilibrium) and (2) only adults work with high wages (―goodâ€â€" equilibrium). At the ―goodâ€â€" equilibrium in which adult wages are above the subsistence level, parents have no incentive to send children to work according to the Luxury Axiom. In contrast, when the economy stays at the bad equilibrium in which adult wages are below the subsistence level, adults have to send children to work to sustain the household. In this model, a household resource is the important factor in the determination of child labour. Other models exploring multiple equilibriums have looked at the relationship between child labour and social norms, and also at the question of income redistribution. The dynamic consequences of child labour are likely to be significant since an increase in child labour frequently causes a decline in the acquisition of human capital. The issue of child labour in Ghana and in Madina of the Ga-East district in particular lends itself to the ―bad economyâ€â€" explanations that compel parents to send their children out to work to supplement family income. The theoretical underpinning of this study is on the Substitution Axiom where children work to supplement the inadequate income of the family. This from the functionalist point of view, child labour has a function to perform for the survival of the family. Theory on Academic performance A kwon thesis we can talk about is Martin Ford‘s motivational systems theory (MST). This framework focuses on the individual as the unit of analysis, but lodges the individual in the biological, social, and environmental contexts that are crucial to development. MST attempts to describe the development of the whole person-in-context, in much the same way a biologist might describe an individual plant and its relation to its immediate ecological niche, as well as the larger ecosystems in which it resides (Pintrich & Schunk, 1996). Ford proposed a simple mathematical formula that attempts to represent all these factors in one model. The formula for effective person-in-context functioning is: Achievement = (Motivation x Skill ) x Responsive Environment Biological Structure The formula proposes that actual ―achievement and competence are the products of a motivated, skillful, and biologically capable person interacting with a responsive environmentâ€â€" (Ford, 1992, p.70). The motivational systems theory does not attempt to replace any of the existing theories. Instead, it attempts to organize the various motivational constructs from different theories into one model. The main constructs are self-efficacy beliefs, the role of expectancy, and goal orientation. The formula suggests that in any behaviour episode, there are four major prerequisites for effective functioning: 1. The person must have the motivation needed to initiate and maintain the activity until the goal directing the episode is attained. 2. The person must have the skill necessary to construct and execute a pattern of activity that will produce the desired result. 3. The person‘s biological structure and functioning must be able to support the operation of the motivation and skill components. 4. The person must have the cooperation of a responsive environment that will facilitate progress towards the goal (Ford, 1992). Thus, how students deal with their studies or attain their academic goals and how they cope with or accomplish different tasks given to them by their teachers does not depend solely on their biological disposition but has social or environmental contributions. This could be in the form of an achievement motivation or sociocultural factors such as family background, teaching skills and accessibility. Other theory like the individual difference theory also explains academic performance. Individual difference in academic performance has been linked to differences in intelligent and personality. Students with higher mental ability as demonstrated by IQ tests (quick learners) and those who are higher in conscientiousness (linked to effort and achievement motivation) tend to achieve highly in academic settings. A recent meta-analysis suggested that mental curiosity (as measured by typical intellectual engagement) has an important influence on academic performance in addition to intelligence and conscientiousness. The above frameworks portray a relationship between child labour and academic performance. LITERATURE REVIEW There is no single universally accepted definition of child labour. Child labour is regarded as a social construct which differs by actors, history, context and purpose (Weston, 2005). There are differences in what constitute child labour. For example, the World Bank describes child labour as a â€â€"serious threat‘ from the pointof view of the harm it can do to long term national investment (Weston, 2005). The ILO relates the phenomenon to the harm done to children by their current engagement in certain types of economic activity. UNICEF emphasizes that the issue goes way beyond the concerns of investment or its relation to economic activity, and includes several aspects of domestic work which conflicts with the best interest of the child (Huebler, 2006).There are many dimensions and views of the phenomenon but much emphasis will be placed on the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and United Nations Children‘s Fund‘s (UNICEF) views on the subject. The UNICEF Concept and Definition of Child Labour UNICEF has expanded the ILO definition of child labour by emphasizing the importance of domestic work by children, that is, in addition to economic work. UNICEF defines child labour as follows: Children 5 -11 years engaged in any economic activity, or 28 hours or more domestic work per week; Children 12-14 years engaged in any economic activity (except light work for less than 14 hours per week), or 28 hours or more domestic work per week; Children 15-17 years engaged in any hazardous work. The UNICEF definition has the advantage of theoretically capturing all work that children do. The definition of UNICEF provides a good indicator of child labour that is harmful to a child’s physical or mental development. However, it is of limited value for an analysis of the trade -off between work and school attendance. The ILO Concept and Definition of Child Labour The ILO concept of child labour is derived from the ILO Minimum Age Convention No. 138 of 1973, which sets 15 years as the general minimum age for employment. Any work in violation of Convention No. 138 is considered illegal child labour that should be eliminated. ILO introduces a distinction between child work, which may be acceptable, and child labour, which needs to be eliminated. In this regard, four groups of children engaged in work/labour are identified: Children at work Children engaged in child labour, including all economically active children 5 to 11 years of age; economically active children aged 12 to 14 years, except those doing light work only for less than 14 hours per week; and, children aged 15 to 17 years engaged in any type of hazardous work. Children in hazardous work, that is, work that will likely harm the health, safety, or moral development of a child. In addition to children working in mines, construction or other hazardous activities, this group includes all children below 18 years of age who work 43 hours or more per week. Children in unconditional worst forms of child labour, as defined by ILO Convention No. 182. This includes children in forced or bonded labour, armed conflict, prostitution and pornography, and illicit activities. There are two points to note in this view of the ILO. Firstly, the first group covers activities that might be regarded as positive from an ILO perspective. The second and third groups cover child labour that deserves to be eliminated, and the fourth group requires an urgent action for elimination. Children under five years of age who are not included in these four groups are generally considered too young to be working. Secondly, the ILO definition covers only economic activity, that is, work related to the production of goods and services. Domestic work – such as cooking, cleaning, or caring for children – is ignored. The major criticism of this definition is that it is narrow as it underestimates the burden of work on children, especially for girls, who are more likely than boys to perform work in a household (Gibbons, Huebler, and Loaiza, 2005). Operational Definition of Child Labour For the purpose of this study, child labour is defined as any activity, economic or non -economic, performed by a child, that is either too dangerous or hazardous and/or for which the child is too small to perform and that has the potential to negatively affect his/her health, education, moral and normal development. ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE The variable academic performance could also be definition specific. For example from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Academic achievement or (academic) performance is the outcome of education — the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has achieved their educational goals. Academic achievement is commonly measured by examinations or continuous assessment but there is no general agreement on how it is best tested or which aspects are most important — procedural knowledge such as skills or declarative knowledge such as facts. In California, academic achievement is measured by the Academic Performance Index. However, in Ghana academic performance is measured by the record of marks or grades obtained after a test or an examinations. History of Child Labour Child labour is not a just discovered phenomenon. It has existed in every part of the world since ancient times. In more recent history, it emerged as an issue during the industrial revolution when children were forced to work in dangerous conditions for up to 12 hours a day. In 1860, 50% of children in England between the age of 5 and 15 years were working. In England and Scotland in 1788, two-thirds of the workers in 143 water-powered cotton mills were described as children. In 1919, the world began to address the issue of child labour and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) adopted standards to eliminate it. Throughout the 20th Century, a number of legally binding agreements and international conventions were adopted but in spite of these, child labour continues to this day. The highest number of child labourers is in the Asia Pacific region but the largest percentage of children working, as proportion of the child population, is found in sub-Saharan Africa. Child labour is still common in some parts of the world, it can be factory work, mining, prostitution, quarrying, agriculture, helping in the parents’ business, having one’s own small business (for example selling food), or doing odd jobs. Some children work as guides for tourists, sometimes combined with bringing in business for shops and restaurants (where they may also work as waiters).In Ghana, which Madina is no exception, most child labour occurs in the informal sector, it includes selling many things on the streets and in market places such as; ice water, chewing gums, poly sacks, ―soboloâ€â€", door mats, kerosene, scrubs, etc. Causes of Child Labour Poverty is the main determinant of child labour supply, and that child labour significantly increases the income and the probability of survival of the family. Basu and Van (1998) argue that the primary cause of child labour is parental poverty. That being so, they caution against the use of a legislative ban against child labour, and argue that it should be used only when there is reason to believe that a ban on child labour will cause adult wages to rise and so compensate adequately the households of the poor children. The contribution of children is most of the time critical since children are sent to work when parents‘ earnings are insufficient to guarantee the survival of the family, or are insecure so that child labour is used as a means of minimizing the impact of possible job loss, failed harvest and other shocks on the family‘s income stream. Poor households also tend to have more children, and with large families there is a greater likelihood that children will work and have lower school attendance and completion. ILO (2006) observes that while poverty is almost always a context for the early entry of children into regular work and into child labour, poverty can also be a function of access to labour markets and income-raising activities, family members of working age not having appropriate skills to match market needs in the area where they live, family members low educational levels, unemployment in the area where the family lives, conflict, illness or natural disaster having taken away the breadwinner of the family leaving a dependent household with no-one to depend on.. Many children live in areas that do not have adequate school facilities, so they are compelled to work. Odonkor (2007) claims ―rural parents should rather be seen as people dissatisfied with the education system than as illiterates ignorant of the value of educationâ€â€". The results of a study conducted confirmed that because of the low quality of education, difficulties in access and also the uncertainty of finding an adequate job after graduation, parents have developed a coping strategy by which they send some of their children to school and the others help in fishing, farming or other economic activities. Where education is mandatory, available and understood as important, the proportion of child labour is lower. Poverty may not be the main cause but certainly an important cause that influences a lot in child labour. Why would a child prefer to get an education or go to school when staying in work can make him eat on that day? Or even worse, not even have the opportunity of choice between attending schools or work (UNICEF, 2008). EFFECTS OF CHILD LABOUR According to a research conducted by the ILO‘s 2002 global estimates on child labour, close to half of all working children are enrolled in school. Child labour interferes with education. Either school attendance is foregone in favour of work, or learning is inefficient, either because the children are not allowed to spend time doing their homework or because they are unable to pay proper attention in school because of fatigue (Canagarajah, & Nielsen, 1999). UNICEF‘s study in Ghana and a review of similar studies by the ILO have shown that work has a detrimental effect on learning achievements in the key areas of language and mathematics. Heady (2003) also found that working children in Ghana spent an average of one hour per week less in school. According to Gibbons et al (2003) child labour is associated with higher repetition and dropout rates. Child labour competes with school attendance and proficiency, children sent to work do not accumulate (or under-accumulate) human capital, missing the opportunity to enhance their productivity and future earnings capacity. This lowers the wage of their future families, and increases the probability of their offspring being sent to work. In this way poverty and child labour is passed on from generation to generation. Child labour not only prevents children from acquiring the skills and education they need for a better future, it also perpetuates poverty and affects national economies through losses in competitiveness, productivity and potential income. (ILO, 2006) demonstrate that early entry into the labour force reduces lifetime earnings by 13 -20 per cent, increasing significantly the probability of being poor later in life. There is a general agreement that some trade-off between children in labour and human capital accumulation takes place. With respect to school attendance and progress, full-time jobs have the worst impact on children‘s future productivity. Part-time jobs, especially those that are physically very demanding, also disrupt education since children are too tired to participate adequately at school activities or to study at home. The age of entry into the labour force is also important in this context: the younger the child enters the labour force, the less human capital he/she will be able to accumulate. Child labour seriously undermines efforts to provide children with the necessary st knowledge and skills to meet the challenges of the 21 Century. The long term effect of child labour on the nation is enor mous and need to be addressed. Efforts in addressing the problem of child labour Ghana‘s Labour Laws and Regulations prohibit child labour, putting the minimum age of employment at 15 in consonance with ILO Standards and Regulations. Ghana has also ratified the OAU Charter on the Rights of the Child. The Constitution guarantees the child in Ghana to be protected from engaging in any work that is considered injurious to his or her health, education and/or development. The Government enacted, in December 1998, the Children‘s Act, which seeks to protect the rights of children, including the right of education, health and shelter. The establishment of the Ghana National Commission on Children (GNCC) under the Ministry of Women and Children‘s Affairs (MOWAC) in 2001 was also to oversee the welfare and development of children, and to coordinate services which would aim at promoting the rights of the child. Poverty is considered a major determinant of child labour in Ghana. To lessen the effect of poverty on the Ghanaian child there was the need of policy interventions by the government. Over the years, Ghana has developed several poverty reduction strategies and one of such strategies is the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy for 2006 through 2009 (GPRS II) is to achieve ―the status of a middle-income economy by the year 2015 within a decentralized democratic environmentâ€â€" characterized by an increase in per capita income and an improvement in living standards (Republic of Ghana 2005:5). The GPRS II indicated that priority will be given to special programmes to combat the worst forms of child labour under which the government is implementing the Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty (LEAP) programme to support families to fight against child labour. To qualify for the LEAP programme, all the household children of school age should be enrolled in schools and that no child should be trafficked or is engaged in any of the worst forms of l abour. The ILO has been campaigning to end child labour since the organization was founded in 1919. The ILO doctrine on child labour states that labour carried out by children of 15 years or younger under conditions which stifle their physical, psychological and intellectual development must be eliminated. Today, the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) is the ILO’s main instrument on child labour. These conventions, applies to all sectors of economic activity. The ILO’s ongoing offensive against child labour includes a technical cooperation programme designed to help countries build up a permanent capacity to address the problem. Launched in 1992, the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) fosters the development of an effective partnership between government services, employers’ organizations, trade unions, non-governmental organizations and other interested parties including universities and members of the media. As early as 1921, the ILO passed the first Minimum Age Convention, the world has attempted to protect children‘s right to an education and to prevent any child labour which would prejudice their school attendance.(Gibbons et al, 2003). Since 1990, with the entry into force of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the child‘s right to be protected from ―any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child‘s educationâ€â€" (Article 32) and his or her right, on an equal, nondiscriminatory basis to ―primary education compulsory and available free to allâ€â€" (Article 28) have gained the status of internationally recognised norms, while imposing an obligation on the 192 states parties to the Convention to realise these rights for the children under their jurisdiction. In the year 2000, children were provided further protection through the entry into force of ILO Convention 182, which was ratified by 150 countries as of May 2004. Convention 182 prohibits the worst forms of child labour, defined as all forms of slavery and similar practices; child prostitution and pornography; illicit activities (in particular the production and trafficking of drugs); and work that is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children. The International Labour Organization‘s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) was created in 1992 with the overall goal of the progressive elimination of child labour, which was to be achieved through strengthening the capacity of countries to deal with the problem and promoting a worldwide movement to combat child labour. IPEC currently has operations in 88 countries, with an annual expenditure on technical cooperation projects that reached over US$61 million in 2008. It is the largest programme of its kind globally and the biggest single operational programme of the ILO. The number and range of IPEC‘s partners have expanded over the years and now include employers‘ and workers‘ organizations, other international and government agencies, private businesses, community-based organizations, NGOs, the media, parliamentarians, the judiciary, universities, religious groups and, of course, children and their families. All these interventions by government and NGOs are geared towards finding solutions to the child labour problem. Challenges in addressing the problem Firstly, assuming a successful reduction in child labour both in the formal and informal economy, this notion relies crucially on the fact that lower child labour means higher schooling, which is not at all automatic. According to UNICEF (2006), to succeed in eliminating child labour, schools must be available, accessible and affordable for poor families. Schools must be of sufficiently good quality, and the curricula must be of practical help for the children living in a specific region and condition. Most importantly, school should be a safe and healthy place where to send schildren. Unfortunately this is not the case in developing countries especially in Ghana and its inner cities like the study area. In the 2001 Ghana Child Labour Survey, in all the regions and for all age groups, the most frequent reason cited for non-attendance at school was nonaffordability by parents to cater for children. The next most frequently cited reasons were long distance of place of residence from school and children not being interested in school. Classrooms are often not available especially in the rural areas and city slums and where they exist they are not in good shape and therefore not conducive enough for academic work. Both parents and pupils need to see the fruits of education from those who have passed through the school system to serve as a source of motivation for those in school and those yet to enroll. Low returns to education have made education less attractive for many parents. This has especially been the case in rural areas, where formal education makes very little difference given limited formal sector opportunities and most skills are acquired by the â€Å"learning by doing† principle. Child labour is perceived as a process of socialization in many countries and it is believed that working enables a child to get acquainted with employable skills. Lessons from the Literature From the available literature it is evidently clear that the issue of child labour is real but the problem with it in Africa is the availability of reliable data spelling out the magnitude of the problem. Several factors account for child labour in our society and they include the following; poverty, single parenting, sheer ignorance on the part of some parents and socio-cultural beliefs. From the data reviewed, poverty has been a major determinant of child labour in Ghana and in most developing countries. The vast majority of the children are engaged in agricultural related activities. The problem in the developing world and Ghana in particular is more rural than urban. Some rural dwellers regard child labour as part of a training programme for children. Working children are also considered essential contributors to household incomes. However, our group attempts to translate or research further on how the phenomenon affects academic performance in Madina- a society which hosts two dominant Religions(Christianity and Islam) and heterogeneous as well The solution to the problem does not lie only in the enactment of laws but also in empowering individuals economically to be able to provide education to their children ( Basu, 1998). Human capital is one of the keys to reducing poverty. Education opens up opportunities for better health and better nutrition. This is because education normally leads to higher income and greater access to social benefits, as well as greater productivity. Indeed education is central to all aspects of the impact of population and poverty. Therefore, in trying to find a solution to the problem, there is the need for a multifaceted approach taking into consideration the religious and cultural backgrounds. REFERENCES Basu, K, (1998). Child Labour: Cause, Consequence and Cure, with Remarks on International Labor Standards. Heady, C, (2000). ―What is the effect of child labour on learning achievement? Evidence from Ghana.† Innocenti Working Papers, no. 79. ILO, (2005). â€Å"Facts on Child Labour,†Geneva. Kumekpor, T.K.B, (2002). Research Methods and Techniques of Social Research, Son life Press and services Accra Republic of Ghana (1992). The Constitution of the Republic of Ghana. UNICEF, (2004). The State of the World’s Children New York. .