CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Western education is the primary tool for social transformation in Nigeria. Education is the safest and most effective investment a country can make in order to accelerate the development of its economic and human resources (Ifeakandu, 2011). When the nation is in desperate need of urgent restoration of a balanced economy, education is a long-term policy that must be undertaken. Nigeria, like other countries throughout the world, seeks people who will contribute to the country’s progress through education. Such education should be designed to provide knowledge and abilities that will allow students to follow cultural values while also progressing technologically (Fayokun, 2015).
According to UNICEF (2006), 15 million children under the age of 14 are involved in some sort of labor in Nigeria. The majority of these children are forced to labor long hours in a hazardous and unhealthy setting.
According to Fayokun, (2015), in some parts of the country, children work as street beggars and shoe shiners, car washers and watchers, scavengers, and foot washers in public places and markets. Children who subsist by begging on the streets in Northern Nigeria are known as “almajirai.” The surge of child labor in the country could be attributed to the desire for inexpensive labor as well as poverty.
