Child labor results into restriction of schooling and healthcare. It leads to extreme mental and bodily harm and could go further to amount to death.
According to the International Labour Organization law on child labour number 182,all forms of child labour are prohibited like slavery, child prostitution, use of children to carry out criminal activities and dangerous labour.
In most schools, there’s a very critical observation that has been noted. Some of the learners never attend school during market days. Some are normally sent to the market on such days to do business on behalf of their parents or guardians or simply stay home and take care of the home as their parents engage in business.
In our schools, learners miss learning for at least two days in a cumulatively such learners appear in school half of the total duration of learning. A good example is that such a learner who’s in form four, was supposed to be in form two while that one who’s in grade 9 is supposed to be in either grade 4 or 5.
Some learners become absent on school days because of tending animals on behalf of their parents. Such work is supposed to be done by parents themselves.
Other learners miss school because of fetching gold and other precious minerals. After realizing that they can get a lot of money from gold, such learners wouldn’t see any need for them to continue with learning.
Another great number of learners do gather fruits and sell them to make profit during school days, school administrators should liaise with the relevant authorities to bring such practices to a halt.
There’s still a group of parents who engage learners in fishing do that adequate amount of money can be realized to address home’s financial challenges.
On the same note there are homes in our country where underage children are engaged by rogue home owners as house helps. Such children are then subjected to a lot of torture.
Schools are expected to be havens of hope. Some of the learners are overage because of child labour practices that probably went sour.
It’s the collective duty of all citizens of goodwill to ensure that children are not just subjected to unnecessary labour that would compromise their health and education.
By Hillary Muhalya
You can also follow our social media pages on Twitter: Education News KE and Facebook: Education News Newspaper for timely updates.
>>> Click here to stay up-to-date with trending regional stories
>>> Click here to read more informed opinions on the country’s education landscape
