CHILD WORK AND SCHOOLING IN ETHIOPIAN COMMUNITIES

Yisak Tafere

Alula Pankhurst

Young Lives Ethiopia

East and Southern African Regional Symposium on child work/labour, Addis Ababa, 20-21 March 2014

• Introduction

• Data source

• Results

• Discussion

• Conclusion

OUTLINE

• Contrasting views of child work and schooling: • first, child work inhibits schooling and at one extreme suggested it

should be banned (e.g. UNCRC and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of Children)

• Second, acknowledging the detrimental effects of work on children, work benefits children, particularly those living in poverty • suggests linking work with schooling is possible, useful and in

some cases necessary.

This study, drawing on longitudinal Young Lives data, investigates how children combine both work and schooling in Ethiopian communities and how one impacts on the other.

INTRODUCTION

Survey data • Three rounds of survey (2002 aged 8, 2006 aged 12, 2009 aged 15)

• Number of children: R1 = 1,000, R=980, R3= 973

• In R3 the composition was: 51% boys, 49% girls, 42% urban, 58% rural

• Survey on Time use, Activities, Schooling

Qualitative data

• 3 rounds fieldwork (2007 aged 13, 2008 aged 14, 2011 aged 17)

• 30 children (18 rural and 12 urban; 15 boys, 15 girls)

• Self-reported one-week diary, educational timeline, interviews

DATA SOURCE

School enrolment (%)

Primary

school

completion

rate (R3) (%)

Drop-out

(R2-R3)

(%) R1 R2 R3

Average 66 97 90 18 8

Urban 89 98 96 29 4

Rural 51 97 85 10 12

Boys 64 97 88 19 9

Girls 68 98 92 17 7

RESULTS: SCHOOLING

Hours per typical day spent on activities by children at 12 and 15 years old Age 12 (N=955) Age 15 (N=970)

Total Rural Urban Girls Boys Total Rural Urban Girls Boys Non-poor poor

In domestic activities (child care and chores) 2.84 2.90 2.76 3.59 2.12 3.30 3.54 2.94 4.40 2.25 2.03 2.69

In Unpaid family business outside home 1.62 2.33 0.57 1.03 2.18 1.35 1.93 0.49 0.43 2.21 0.73 1.85

on paid activities 1.47 2.17 0.42 0.90 2.01 0.41 0.45 0.36 0.32 0.51 0.01 0.02

on all kinds of work 4.46 5.23 3.33 4.63 4.31 5.06 5.91 3.79 5.15 4.97 0.88 0.95

in school 5.42 5.12 5.87 5.49 5.36 5.51 5.04 6.22 5.75 5.30 6.10 4.35

on studying at home

1.73 1.59 1.94 1.71 1.75 1.86 1.64 2.19 1.82 1.89 1.26 0.87

RESULTS: CHILD WORK AND SCHOOLING

• In a typical day, children spent more than 6 hours in school, with slightly higher proportions for urban children.

• Children from non-poor families have more time for schooling than those from poor families.

• As they grow older, the time children spent on work increased while the time devoted to schooling remained almost the same.

• Young Lives survey data shows that children combined both work and schooling. • Qualitative data illustrate children’s experiences in combining work and

schooling.

TIME USE: WORK AND SCHOOLING

Schooling

• 29 of the 30 children attended some level of schooling

• At age 17, only 4 girls have completed primary school; others were between Grade 2 and 8

• Four boys and two girls (for marriage) have dropped out at 17

Work for cash

• 19 (4 urban and 15 rural) have reported to have worked for cash

• Three urban girls have reported to have helped mothers to generate income

• Children began work for cash as young as 8

• The types of work: • Rural: irrigation, stone crushers, sorting

haricot, selling stones, fishing, casual work, • Urban: street vending, taxi attendant, car

wash/work in garage

SCHOOL AND WORK: CONDITIONS OF CASE-STUDY CHILDREN

I began working for cash by washing private cars in our area since the age of 8 or 9. I also worked as an assistant to a taxi driver. When I was very young, older boys used to order me to wash a car and we share the money. When I got older, I began working on my own and took all the money. …. In the last three years, I have been working in fixing tyre of cars and sometimes wash cars. Sometimes, I work in a garage. ….Two years ago, I quit my education because of injury. As I did not attend regularly, the school gave me a report card stating: ‘incomplete.’

I used to rely on education before but now I prefer to work. I want a better thing by doing business. I want to become involved in selling cars; we meet people while doing our jobs and they tell us how to do it(Bereket, 2011).

Bereket (aged 14), damaged his hand when he misused electric power while filling pressure into a tyre. He had to go to a hospital for treatment. It took him three months to recover missing his school. He had to interrupt school for the year and repeat the grade. He had to spend much of his savings.

COMBINING WORK AND SCHOOLING: TRADE-OFFS

Time 15/10/2007 17/11/2008 20/04/2011

6:00-6:30am put on my clothes, washed my

hands and face

Put on my clothes, used toilet,

washed my face

Put on clothes and used toilet

6:30-7:00 Did home work I cleaned house Cleaned house alone

7:00-8:00 Cooked wat (stew) Had breakfast Fetched water from outside alone

8:00-8:30 Had break fast Went to school Had breakfast 8:30-10:00 Studied Learned, played at break Sorted out haricot beans (8:30-11:00)

10:00-12:00 Attended makeup class in school

Returned from school returned from work, washed (11:00-

12:00) 12:00-12:30 Had lunch Had lunch Had lunch 12:30-1:00 fetched water outside home Washed went to school 1:00-6:00pm

sorted out haricot beans at

employer’s house

sorted out haricot (1-3pm),

combed my hair (3-3:30), studied

(3:30-5), played (5-6pm)

Attended school (1-5pm), did

homework (5:30-6pm)

6:00-8:00 baked injera, cooked wat boiled coffee, cooked stew (6-8) cooked stew and coffee (6-9pm) 8:00-8:30 Ate dinner and slept Ate dinner, slept ate dinner, washed utensils, studied

and finish assignment (9:50-12), slept

(midnight)

TIME-USE: MULATUWA’S DIARY

During the weekends, Mulatua worked in sorting out haricot beans for about 10 hours. The trade-off is so evident. She said: “We were suffering a lot from a shortage of food for consumption…. When I do daily labour, I earn some money. But my educational performance is negatively affected. My health is also affected because of the dust (2008, age 13).

The problem has continued over the years. At the age of 16, she reported: “I work in sorting out the haricot from the dust. I get 25 Birr per quintal which takes me three days to finish. … This is affecting my health and schooling but my mother obliges me to continue to work. I cannot study properly after I come back home as the seat we use during the sorting out of the beans is not comfortable (2011, age 17).

The work affected her health (nose, eye, back pain) and indirectly her education. But still she is one of the few students who completed primary school at the age of 15 and she is confident that she will pursue her university education.

TIME-USE: MULATUWA’S DIARY (cont’d)

“The situation started to change since 2004, when the development work flooded to this Kebele (locality). The focus of children shifted to work and the value given to education declined. Since the introduction of irrigations by investors on farm lands, most children are engaged in daily labour. This has affected education negatively.

The farms are adjacent to the school compound. The students pretend that they go to toilets but they escape through that. They don’t want to listen to their teachers. In fact, they tell the teachers that it is their business to learn or not. They tell them that they want money, not education. They have learned working in the vegetable farms since their young age. So they do not bother about education. They prefer money to education” (school director, 2011, Oromia site).

Grade Enrolled

in

school

Attending

during

observation

Absentees

during

observation

Number of

dropouts

1 117 47 70 9

2 100 39 61 20

3 58 39 19 2

4 54 27 27 6

5 50 36 14 4

6 51 33 18 2

7 53 36 17 10

8 56 32 24 1

Total 539 289 250 54

SCHOOLING AND WORK: COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT

Age 13

1) Haymanot

learning Grade 5, lived with aunt

2) Bereket, attending school, washing car for cash

3) Mulutwa, attending school and sorting haricot for cash

4) Defar – Grade 2, sells stone with father

age 14

Haymanot - working in stone crusher, dropped at Grade 5

Bereket - work in garage, injured, interrupted school, but resumed Mulatua - continue haricot picking, health problem, but still good at school

Defar – attends school, do causal work for cash, sell stone, head injury, …

Age 17

• Haymanot - stopped working, married at 16

• Bereket - continued to work and gained skills, wants to start car business, in school but less interested

• Mulatuwa -continued to do the same work, finished primary school and hopeful to continue and finish university

• Defar, dropped at Grade 4, does any paid work,

WORK AND SCHOOLING TRAJECTORIES: EXAMPLES

• Work is common to all, but children go through an intermittent educational trajectories.

• the prevalence of the ‘ambiguity’ of children’s ‘educational status’

• we were puzzled whether some children could be considered as ‘students’ or ‘workers.’ Some were registered as ‘students’ but they were actually ‘working.’

• Thus, combining work and schooling does not necessarily mean that they are ‘regularly attending’ school.

• ‘Flexibility’ from parents, employers and schools ‘led’ children to have ‘loosen’ boundary between work and schooling

DISCUSSIONS: THE AMBIGUITY OF WORK-SCHOOLING

• In the past, children had to do more work for the family before they set up their own independent lives. Very few had the opportunity to go school and were not required to do both.

• Expansion of schools and other investments brought new responsibilities for children – combining work with schooling.

• Children do paid work because the work is available and secondly, they have to meet school costs which are difficult for families who are already struggling economically.

• In the rural areas, primary schools and investments attracting child work are at their backyards

• While children try to do both, many are not successful in making the synergy

DISCUSSIONS: AMBIVALENCE OF COMBINING WORK AND SCHOOLING

• School expansion has brought an additional responsibility for children: combining both work and schooling

• Work may help children for their immediate survival, schooling and future life

• As they grow older, children find it hard to combine work and schooling because both need a considerable time –making the synergy more difficult.

• The negative impact of work on schooling is evident but its magnitude is diverse based on age, gender and location

• However, for poor children, making the best of the synergy between work and schooling, remains as a necessity.

CONCLUSIONS

Thank you!

http://www.younglives.org.uk/