Mainstreaming child labour concerns in education sector plans and programmes
ILO
Highlights
The international effort to achieve education for all and the progressive elimination of child labour are inextricably linked. On the one hand, quality education is a key element in preventing child labour and contributes to building a protective environment for all children. On the other hand, child labour is one of the main obstacles to full-time school attendance and, in the case of some part-time work, may prevent children from fully benefiting from their time at school.
In order to establish this link in policy-making, mainstreaming child labour concerns in the education sector is essential. It means ensuring that efforts to target children in child labour becomes an integral part of education sector policies, strategies and actions.
Whilst the focus of this manual is on children in child labour it is safe to assume that many of the measures considered in this Manual would also benefit other hard-to-reach children presently excluded from education.
This Manual is designed to guide the planning and implementation of a national or local workshop on child labour and education. Such workshops on child labour and education provide an opportunity to bring together stakeholders in order to analyse the links between child labour and education and decide on steps to improve the mainstreaming of child labour in education planning. Expected outcomes will depend on the national situation. They could range from revising the national education sector plan so as to better address the needs of child labourers, to setting up an inter-sectoral working group on child labour and education.