Children Missing Children Missing

from Class of 2015from Class of 2015

CountryOut of Primary

School (thousands)

Girls Out of Primary School (%)

Burkina-Faso

Djibouti

DR Congo

Ethiopia

Gambia

Ghana

Guinea

Guyana

Kenya

Lesotho

Madagascar

Mauritania

Mozambique

Niger

Nigeria

Tanzania

Uganda

Zambia

% of childrenworking (5-14yrs)

1398

5306

5780

44

1323

455

1

2030

511

145

1171

1218

6754

1635

666

-

-

-

54.07

50.6

54.08

52.27

59.78

100

49.75

45.79

51.03

52.6

54.84

51.93

50.9

-

-

-

-

66.3

49.7

24.8

24.2

48.8

26.3

32.5

28.1

24.3

66.2

35.4

33.9

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Sub-Saharan Africa - Children Out of School and % Children Working

Source for table and charts:Children Out of School, UNESCO, 2005; pp. 70-79

http://gmr.uis.unesco.org/; and 2007 EFA Global Monitoring Report, UNESCO2005 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, USDOL, 2006

Country red flagged- Urgent Action required

ContextIn approaching the forthcoming EFA High-Level Group meeting at the end of 2008, the global civil society is keen to ensure that the world's hard-to-reach categories, in particular child labourers are included in the list of priorities for action. Although a constant progress has been made in bringing millions of children to classrooms but 72 million children are still missing. Where are they? If special efforts are not made now with a sense of urgency to bring them to schools by liberating from socio-economic, cultural and political exclusions, the EFA and MDG goals can never be accomplished. It is known that child labor perpetuates poverty and acts as single biggest obstacle to education for all. It is also a barrier to adults getting decent work and fair wages. The situation is challenging for the countries that have highest number of children out of school and most endemic child labor problem. These children are trapped in compelling environments and will require more than the ordinary efforts and commitment from the Governments and donors to ensure that they can attend full time schools and receive quality education. There is strong empirical evidence as per the Child labor and education: Evidence from SIMPOC surveys (ILO-IPEC 2008).

?Rates of children's work and school attendance are negatively correlated. The former acts as a significant barrier to education for all. At the national level higher incidence of child labor is generally associated with lower values in the Education Development Index (EDI) which is a yard stick to measure gains in EFA.

?Children's work is associated with both lower school enrolment, late school entry and overall low literacy rate

?Children's work is associated with higher drop-out rate

?Children's work is associated with higher grade repetition (indirect evidence also of a negative link between child labour and school performance)

?Children's work is associated with lower academic test scores, and other direct indicators of school performance

?There is significant co relation between levels of economic activity and primary school repetition rates and school survival rates

?Incidence of child labor is higher when there is lack of an accessible and affordable education infrastructure

?There is strong evidence of school achievements having a direct bearing on expected future wage earning capacity

?Lower pupil to teacher ratio reduces the involvement of children in economic activity and increases the number of children attending school

?The presence of school library can stimulate an increase in school attendance

?The presence of experienced teachers, attracts larger number of children to attend full time school

?Effects differ by sex and area or residence: e.g., in case of pupil/teacher ratio, effect larger for male children and in rural areas. In Yemen pupil teacher ratio and male to female teacher ratio appears important in attracting girls to school.

?Empirical findings suggest that school quality programs are not only effective in increasing school attendance, but also act as deterrents to child labor, especially for children of secondary school age.

?Conditional cash transfer programmes have a strong, consistent and robust negative effect on child work over all age ranges

?Rural working children tend to be among the most disadvantaged. School attendance figures in rural areas differ considerably by work status. In one quarter of a sample countries child laborers in rural areas faced a school attendance gap of 20 per cent or more against children who are not working.

Asia Pacific - Children Out of School and % Children Working

India58.6% girls out of school

and 4.1% children working

Pakistan59.6% girls out of school and % children working

unknown

Bangladesh43.5% girls out of school

and 13.4% children working

Timor Leste(data unknown)

Vietnam(data unknown)

Europe and Central Asia: Children Out of School and % Children Working

Moldova54.7% girls OSC

Albania58.3% girls OSC and

36.6% children working

Tajikistan(data unknown)

Latin America: Children Out of School and % Working Children

Honduras46.21% girls OSC & 9.2% working

children

Bolivia46.97 % girls OSC

Nicaragua50% girls OSC & 10.9% working

children

Dakar 2007 Communiqué made the following commitments to prepare the ground towards bringing the missing children to the classrooms

Undertake a mapping to determine more precisely the characteristics of excluded groups, their circumstances and needs and thus inform more inclusive educational policies. This mapping could also:

i. Use household and other such surveys as sources of detailed quantitative and qualitative data;

ii. Empower communities by engaging them fully in identifying the excluded and vulnerable in their societies;

iii. Identify steps to strengthen and harmonize, where necessary, the legislative framework within which the right to education is guaranteed;

iv. Include a costing of what is needed to reach marginalized groups effectively;

v. Foster coordination at local, regional and national levels and across sectors, promoting more inclusive policies in order to mobilize schools and their communities.”

Dakar 2007 Communiqué

Recommendations??Reward cross-sectoral initiatives and solutions by establishing links between

national policies and plans on education and child labor to ensure an integrated approach

?All countries in the EFA FTI should undergo mandatory mapping of the hard to reach children through a nationally owned process in collaborative effort with civil society and other stakeholders, and with the support of international partners to determine more precisely the characteristics of excluded groups, their circumstances and needs and thus inform more inclusive educational policies. Such mapping exercises can provide additional information on the extent to which child labor is preventing children accessing or benefiting from education.

?Fill knowledge gaps related to: (i) the impact of delivery of services within other sectors on bringing child laborers and other hard-to-reach into school (e.g. social protection, water provision and health services), (ii) non-economic activities keeping in particular girls out of school, (iii) identify what school quality features works best to motivate parents who do not send their children to school and instead work, (iv) links between labor market activities, drop-out and irregular school attendance.

?Majority of out of school children are in rural areas as agriculture engages largest numbers of child laborers so focus should be given to rural areas.

?National education strategies should create and enabling environment for children in schools who start late and also for those who are restricted from attending schools because of age restrictions.

?Promote through incentives inter-ministerial dialogue, coordination at the country level, dialogue between international agencies with different sector focus, and dialogue between sector divisions within international agencies.

?Strengthen Global Monitoring Report indicators to reflect not only how many new children are in school, but also who these children are (former or potential child workers, other hard-to-reach). GMR should mobilize vigorously compiling data from national governments on extent of child labor in specially age group of school going children so that it can better facilitate local efforts in targeting child laborers. UNESCO is required to play a robust role in this across sectors and institutions to meet the comprehensive reporting obligation.

?Similarly all donor instruments of funding either through the World Bank, EFA-Fast Track Initiative or bilateral should include reporting on hardest to reach children in a disaggregated manner to reflect on various categories of children reached.

?Establish a multi-donor, multi-agency trust fund to encourage the development and piloting of knowledge-based, cross-sectoral, politically realistic local strategies and program models for including the last ten to fifteen percent: working and other hard-to-reach children. Collaboration between academia, government and NGO/CBOs, teachers unions should be a requirement.

?Invest in capacity building, awareness raising of the civil society, teachers unions and trade unions to effectively play a catalytic role in ensuring that the national plans, strategies and operational mechanisms to reach the hardest to reach children are credible and evolve through a cross sectoral and inter ministerial collaborative effort.

?Promote a culture of collaboration within the inter governmental agencies at country level to facilitate national processes in establishing an effective outreach to hard to reach children.

Global March Against Child LabourPO Box 4479, Kalkaji, New Delhi-110019, India Ph.: +91 11 4132 9025, Fax: +91 11 4053 2072, E-mail: info@globalmarch.org Website: www.globalmarch.org

International Center on Child Labor and Education (ICCLE)888, 16th Street, NW Suite 400 Washington, DC 20006 Ph.: 202-974-8124 and 202-974-8125 Fax: 202-974-8123Email: sjoshi@iccle.org Website: www.iccle.org

GCE, 6th Floor, Nedbank Gardens, 33 Bath Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg, South AfricaPh.: +27 (0)11 447 4111 Fax : +27 (0)11 447 4138E-mail: info@campaignforeducation.org