compatibility of work and school: informal school–work arrangements in central kenya
DESCRIPTION
Presentation from international meeting on children's work and child labour hosted by the Africa Child Policy Forum, Organisation for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa, and Young Lives in Addis Ababa, 20-21 March 2014TRANSCRIPT
Compatibility of Work and School: Informal School Work Arrangements in Central Kenya
Gladwell N. Wambiri
Kenyatta University,
Kenya
Presentation at East African Regional Symposium on Child Work/Child Labour, 20-21 March
2014
Introduction • Childhood seen as a time of growing up and of
being nurtured and protected.
• View considers employing children as workers as detrimental to their education and general development.
• Most local and international instruments relating to child labour silently based on this view (Liebel 2004).
• Labour regulations prohibiting child labour ratified in many countries, making it illegal for them to work, especially work that prevents them from attending school.
• NGOs and governments have emphasised ways of stopping children from work.
Introduction (cntd)
• Criticism: Work keeps children away from school. • Studies have reported negative correlations between work
and school ttendance/ (e.g. Hagemann and Allais (2008). Long hours of work have also been associated with low performance (Edmonds 2005:3641).
• Work, indeed, could keep children away from school. However many factors influence school attendance and performance in school.
• Failure to control for these confounding variables. • This paper suggests that a complex interaction of other
relevant variables, that are specific to the realities of individual children, determine this relationship.
• In some cases, work could even be the catalyst that makes schooling possible.
Introduction (cntd) • Perspective: Children’s circumstances around the world, or even in one locale,
are not and can never be universal:Any measure contemplated or taken for the good of a child must consider the child’s circumstances.
Efforts to eradicate child labour built on the mistaken notion that child work is undesirable and that it is not compatible with schooling.
In a typical context in Kenya The GOK has made a lot of efforts to increase enrolment of children in school:
FPE in 2003. Enrolment in lower primary classes e.g. in Kiambu County: 2003 and
2011(Muthara, 2012) Government directive & Corporate farms commitment not to employ children
below 18 years Individual families understand the formula by which they feed and clothe their
members: Blocking so-called ‘school unfriendly work’, means blocking means of survival.
In recognition of the peculiar challenges that some needy families face in Kenya, this study provides evidence on the compatibility of schooling and work for the affected children.
Research objectives and methods
Purpose: To find out how children who worked in certain private coffee farms and market places in Central Kenya managed to work during the school term.
Research started with a survey of 113 children and their parents.
Age range: 5 to 17 and worked for pay on coffee farms and in the Market.
Data obtained through interviews with children, parents and teachers.
Emphasis given to children’s perspectives Study location: Ruiru District in Central Kenya
Children’s work in Ruiru
Broader context of children’s paid work in Ruiru District as revealed by survey
Main Categories of children’s paid work: Coffee cultivation Coffee picking Working in the market (selling and porterage) Child
vendors sell goods by themselves or with their parents. Also, for a fee, children are sometimes engaged to watch
over shoppers’ cars to prevent them from being vandalised or stolen by gangs.
Note: Work opportunities for these children change according to times and seasons.
Peak activity
Month of the year Working hours
Coffee Picking June, July, November
& December
8a.m. -3p.m
Cultivation Jan May;
August to October
8.00a.m -5p.m
Market work All the months 6.00a.m - 5p.m
Children’s Work and schooling
One third (33%) of the children in this study
worked and also attended school. 36% of the school going children were in the lower
primary school, which remained open from 7.00 a.m. to 12.40 p.m. They went to school in the morning and worked in the afternoon on school days, and did a fuller day’s work on Saturdays.
64 % of school going were in the upper primary school, mostly worked in the markets as porters after 4.30p.m
Two thirds (66%) of the children in the study did not attend school at all. They reported having dropped out of school for various reasons
Reasons for being out of school
Reason Proportion
Lack of school fees 18% Note: had all completed the KCPE Primary education is Free
Lack of money to buy school uniforms or desks
21%
Lack of food at home 38%
Poor results or disagreements with the teacher
16%
Note:
69% of the out-of-school children reported that they needed to work to help their parents provide food and other household needs. 87% of out-of-school children expressed a desire to go back to school.
Desire of out-of-school children and their parents
Children Parents
Combine work with schooling
78% 24%
Schooling and No work
18% 54%
Work and No schooling
4% 18%
Undecided 0% 4%
Parents’ and Children’s reasons for wanting child to Return to School
Reasons Proportion
of children (%)
Proportion of
parents (%)
To learn to read and write 93 88
To get better jobs in future 67 77
To be able to get better paying jobs
72 81
To lead better lives 76 85
To be able to speak English 63 41
To be able to understand their environment
12 26
To be respected 51 34
To become wealthy 79 86
Parents’ and the children’s perceived benefits derived from the children’s paid work
Reasons Proportion of
children (%) Proportion of parents
(%) Supplementing parents’/guardians’ income
86 78
Providing food for the family 83 69
Developing a sense of responsibility
0 45
Buying clothes 19 45
Learning skills 24 38
Being well fitted into their culture
4 17
Providing a form of security for the children given that jobs for educated children are not assured
32 61
The need for paid child work
42 of 113 (37%) combined work with schooling. Main reason seems to be lack of resources For this reason these children are not likely to
return to sch. if stopped from work.
Indeed, without working, some of these children would have been going to school poorly nourished.
NOTE: If these children who need income are also to
attend school, they need to develop school-work schedules. (Demonstarted by two case studies)
Case Study 1 (Mash)
Age: 11 years old at the time of the study. Family background: Orphan, living with maternal grandmother. His single mother had died 5 years prior to study. He had two siblings aged 7 and 15. Dropped out of school immediately after his
mother’s death in order to take care of a younger sister while his grandmother did casual work.
After 2.5 years out of school, he enrolled in primary standard one., Mash was in primary std 3 at the time of the study.
His grandmother had become sickly,no longer able to work on the farm, was selling at a small green-grocer kiosk that ran on very little stock. Low Earnings hence the need for Mash to work.
Case study 1(Mash) cntd
Older brother a full-time farm worker in a neighbouring district. The brother uses most of his earnings to pay rent for the family.
For this family to eke a living, Mash picked coffee (Full day’s job) 3 days a week (Tue, Thur & Sat).
Absent from school 2 days a week. The teacher corroborated with the following addition:
“Mash is from a very poor family. He has a habit of missing school whenever there is cultivation or coffee picking…. I have talked to his grandmother to no avail.... I cannot send the boy away when he comes, I am afraid this could make him drop out from school altogether. It is better to have him on some days than not to have him at all, because this way he learns something. Furthermore, he is a very good and obedient boy.” (Mash)
Mash’s Teacher hopeful his sch. attendance would improve after the coffee picking session.
This indicates that this teacher was sensitive and willing to sacrifice to help the child, and was a partner in the sch-work arrangement.
Mash also worked for pay in the market 3 afternoons (Wed, Fri and Sat.) after leaving school
Mash’s teacher reported that previously the boy used to absent himself from sch on Wed to work at the market. However the tr had successfully persuaded him to attend school on Wed.
Mash and market work Mash had this to say concerning his previous absence from
school on Wednesdays. “I like to attend school as much as possible. However, our
needs in the family force me to go and work for pay in the market on Wednesdays. I make more money on Wednesday morning than I do in the afternoon. Most of the shoppers come in the morning, I could only be certain of coming regularly to school if we got an alternative source of income.”
Full year work “This is the job I do all the time [meaning virtually all the
months in the year]. I do this work every afternoon of the two market days the year round. During the holidays, I do the work the whole day on both market days. However during the school term I only work in the afternoon after returning from school. I run home, change my clothes and rush to the market. I also go there on Saturdays.”
Mash’s Hours of working and Schooling
Day School Type of work Total
Coffee picking Market HH Chores
School Work
M A M A M A
Mon 6 2 6 2
Tue 6 4 2 0 12
Wed 6 2 2 6 4
Thur 6 4 2 0 12
Fri 6 2 2 6 4
Sat 6 2 3 2 13
Sun 4 4
Total 18 18 10 7 16 18 51
Mash on Market work Observations Mash spent more time at work than he did at
school. Interview with the guardian showed that on week
days he spent an average of two to three hours on tasks at home, including household chores, helping the grandmother with selling at the kiosk, and looking after his young sister.
He did his school assignments after he had completed the household chores.
Case study 2 (Tidi) Age: 13 years School level: Primary Std 3 Deserted by mother, since re-married Tidi left with a severely physically challenged father Previously, he had dropped out of std two for 2 yrs to work to support himself and his father. Tidi did most of the HH chores. Initially,
accompanied his father to the nearby town for roadside/market begging .Tidi had met and explained his plight and that of his father to a woman shopkeeper. Expressed wish for some employment as it was becoming very difficult to survive from begging.Tidi’s employer & her husband had purposely employed the boy in order to support his schooling.
Employers account I knew Tidi because he would come begging by my
shop. He was polite and appeared different from other children that begged in the town. He was polite especially polite….We struck a relationship. Sometimes I gave him some food……. Tidi kept asking me to get him a job with one of the people that I knew. I could not get anyone who wished to have a small boy for a worker. Then, I thought of an idea…I talked to my husband and we decide to support him by giving him part-time farm work….He now does farm work and milking for us after he comes home from school.(Employer)
Time in hours spent at work and at school
Day
School Working
Farm Household chores
Monday 5 4 2
Tuesday 5 4 2
Wednesday 5 4 2
Thursday 5 4 2
Friday 5 4 2
Saturday - 11 4
Sunday - 3 3
Total 25 34 17
Grand Total 25 51
Tidi’s Work schedule and payment
Terms of employment: Ksh 2,400 (about US$30) per month. Sometimes food rations,
Wake up at 5.30 a.m. to prepare some tea or some porridge before leaving for school.
Type of work Days Time
Fetching cattle feed, feeding livestock & other Farm work
Monday to Friday Saturday
2.00 -5.00p.m 8.00-5.00p.m.
Sunday 8.00 – 10.00a.m.
Milking and delivering milk to customers
Monday to Sunday 5.00-7.00p.m
Tidi’s schooling Work schedule purposely designed by the
employer to allow Tidi attend school,
Full time schooling: Attending such full time (Primary std 3-Half day)
School requirements e.g. stationery provided
Employer encouraged Tidi to school
Reported to be below average in school performance
Note: The work schedule was tight. Tidi had to attend to HH chores, often doing home work late and fatigued.
“I am able to do all the work and I also complete my homework” (Tidi)
Amore flexible schedule on Sundays. This is when he washed his clothes and those of his father. He also attended church regularly. He called these his resting days as reflected in the following comment.
“I like Saturdays and Sundays. I do not have to wake up early. I go to work at 8.00 a.m.…….. I get home early and I am able to do washing and cleaning before it gets late [meaning before it is dark]. Sometimes I play with my neighbours.” (Tidi)
Compatibility of schooling and work Not always compatible. Degree of their compatibility determined by: (1)Level of schooling/structure of the school
programme (Lower primary: Compatible Upper primary and secondary school: Not
compatible (School hours compete with the prime time for work )
(2) Nature of the work: Market work could be done anytime the child chose: But peak hours in the morning competeing with sch hours.
(3) School-work arrangement specific to each child
(4) The adult partner crucial in determining the extent to which school was compatible with work. For Mash: the understanding of the teacher was crucial. For Tidi, Employers objective crucial.
Lessons Children’s need to combine work and schooling
should be respected.
Some children obviously do need to work while schooling, if they are ever going to get any schooling.
The work programme was not ideal for schooling. Little time for leisure and rest.
Need to explore expedient ways of making schooling fit to the work programme and vice versa in such a way that the child does not get exhausted while trying to achieve these two important and, in some cases, necessary activities.
What form of schooling is compatible with work?
Bearing in mind the significant number of children that drop out after primary school each year for lack of school fees, there is a need to rethink the structure of the upper primary and secondary school programme to provide space for children who are in dire need of earn-and-learn programmes.
Policies that support such a schooling system need to be developed and implemented to increase learning opportunities for such children.
How does work contribute to schooling?
Children’s earnings contributed to their schooling both directly and indirectly.
Child work plays an important role in supporting the families and schooling.
Pri. Ed is free in Kenya, but pupils need to purchase some basic requirements such as clothes, pencils, exercise books, food, and sometimes desks.
How does work contribute to schooling?
”I like this work very much because sometimes I
get good money. Some of the shoppers know about my family and they just give me more money. One day a woman that I carried goods for gave me a packet of flour and clothes for my sister and me….At the market, I buy something to eat. In the farm I have to wait until I go home to eat.” (Mash)
How does work contribute to schooling?
Tidi had a somewhat similar experience: ‘I always have food. Before I started to work
many times we were not able to buy flour for our meals and we would sleep without food. ...Now we have a meal almost every day….’
With all the determination in the world, if the
children had had to go to school hungry all the time, it is obvious they would have dropped out eventually.
Other perceived benefits of child work
Child work not always driven by financial reasons. Tidi and Mash reported other benefits of their working
career. Food and other provision for families “I like this work very much because sometimes I get
good money. Some of the shoppers know about my family and they pay me more money..... One day a woman that I regularly carried some luggage for gave me a packet of flour and clothes for my sister and me.” (Mash)
“I always have food. Sometimes we were not able to
buy flour for our meals and we would sleep without food. ..Now we are always sure of getting a meal….” (Tidi)
Other perceived benefits of work (cntd)
Esteem and social benefits Families appreciate their contributions and this
gives the working children a sense of responsibility and self-worth.
“My father is very happy with me. He tells many people about my work. He is happy because we are able to feed even when he is not lucky to get much money from begging.” (Tidi)
This recognition also extends to the community, which adds to the child’s feelings of self-worth.
”My neighbours tell me I am very good….” (Tidi)
Other perceived benefits of work
Developing social ties at work. “Some shoppers give me a fruit [on top of the pay] to
eat. Some of them have become my friends. They like my work and so I am happy….” (Mash)
Social interaction skills (essential for any
developing child). “I have learnt to walk to people and ask them to let
me carry goods or watch over their cars while they are shopping. Sometimes I talk to new shoppers in the market. When I started this work, I was afraid to ask some people to give me work. I do not fear to talk to them now.”(Mash)
Conclusion
Even with FPE, children in certain socio-economic situations may not attend school in the absence of support structures or systems . Such children may need some form of paid work.
Informal school-work arrangements providing a bridge to schooling
Chances of the S-W arrangement ensuring that the child continues with their schooling to the highest possible level are bleak.
While recognising the role these informal school-work arrangements are playing, there is need for better S-W support arrangements that are officially recognised since these would be more promising and could provide long-term prospects for the children they serve.
Conclusion (cntd) Child work should not be labelled blindly as ‘wrong’.
Because of their peculiar circumstances, some children may choose to combine schooling with paid work.
The child’s decision to work currently has no place within the current government efforts to realise schooling for all. Relevant authorities need to put mechanisms in place for careful examination of such decisions, taking into account the individual children’s circumstances.
There is a need to make schooling favourable for children that really need to work. The current schooling system in Kenya does not take care of this group of children. There is a need to restructure the schooling schedule to accommodate children that need to earn in order to attend school.
Conclusion (cntd) Finally, there is a need for more formal and recognised
school-work arrangements. Informal S-W arrangements described here cannot guarantee future schooling.
Private commercial institutions should come up with formal school-work arrangements that are fully recognised.