CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Child labour is seemingly widespread, diverse and complex, and apparently occurs in different parts of the world. It has, however, been suggested that it occurs more predominantly in the developing countries. It also seems to affect children of different ages and socioeconomic backgrounds, though it has been suggested that children from poor socio-economic backgrounds tend to engage more in child labour than children from richer socioeconomic backgrounds (Chepkwurui, 2004). Similarly, it has earlier been proposed that household poverty could be one of the major factors driving children into child labour. Child labour refers to the engagement in income-generating activity by a child whether in the family business or in businesses owned by others. Children may therefore choose, struggle or are compelled to participate in economic survival of their household by engaging in paid work (Myers, 1991).
Instructively, the way child labour is viewed may also depend on the social and cultural circumstances of the people involved as well as the level of development of a particular nation. According to an international Non-Governmental Organization (INGO) working in the area of child protection (Save the Children, 2008), child labour is generally defined in the context of child exploitation. Child exploitation refers to the use of children for someone else’s advantage, gratification or profit which often results in cruel and harmful treatment of the child. The Republic of Uganda (1998) defined child labour as the involvement of children in tasks beyond their normal roles towards their own well-being and development as well as that of their families and communities, such tasks as may be allocated to them that do not conform to what they can handle by virtue of their age, gender and capability or lack of it, tasks that may cause children of 16 years and below to lose their rights and opportunities to health, education, skills training, proper physical and social well being ( Republic of Uganda, 1998). In this study, child labour is defined as any type of economic or non-economic activity in which children under 18 years engage in so as to obtain a wage or contribute to family welfare.
From the above discussion, it is clear that the concept of a child is central to the issue of child labour and its definition. In line with this, in the Ugandan Constitution, a child is defined as any person who is below 18 years of age (Republic of Uganda, 1995).
The population of working children in Africa is said to be growing and even expected to rise by at least one million children per year if the current economic and social trends on the continent remain unchanged (International Labour Organization / Ministry of Gender, Labour & Social Development (ILO/MGLSD, 2008). Africa is documented to have the highest incidence of child labour in terms of percentages with approximately 41 percent of all children between ages 5 and 14 involved in economic activities as compared to Asia which has 21 percent and Latin America having 17 percent (ILO/MGLSD, 2008). Within the developing countries, child labour is largely a rural phenomenon with 70 percent of all child labourers involved in the agricultural sector many of whom are unpaid family workers (ILO/MGLSD, 2008).
In Uganda, the prevalence of child labour appears to be quite high (United States Department of Labour [USDoL] 2009). A report by the International Programme on Elimination of Child Labour [IPEC]/Uganda Bureau of Statistics (IPEC/UBOS, 2001) estimated that 2.5 million children between the ages of 7 and 14, that is 38% of this age group, were engaged in economic activity. Further analysis by the Bureau also demonstrated that 15% of children engage in economic activity by age 7 and that over half of all Ugandan children are economically active by age 13. Children between the ages of 7 and 14 in rural areas were said to be three times more likely to engage in work than children in urban areas (45 % and 15 % respectively). Moreso, a study by Guracello, Rosati, Breglia & Ssennono (2008) revealed that over 1.76 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 were involved in child labour as defined by Uganda’s national legislation. Mukono District is one of the districts in Uganda in which children seem to be highly engaged in child labour in different sectors such as agriculture, fishing, telecommunications and water selling to mention but a few (ILO/Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (ILO/MGLSD, 2008; Walakira, 2010).
Since the time of her independence in 1962, Ugandan government has made several attempts to increase access to education not only at primary school level but also at secondary school level (Tanner, 2006). According to Bitamazire (2005) education is a major opportunity that contemporary societies like Uganda strive to provide for their children. In the pursuit of providing access to education for children, Ugandan government formulated an educational policy known as the 7 – 4 – 2 -4 system of education.
The 7- 4 -2 -4 system of education comprises 7 years of primary school education leading to Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) certificate, four years of lower secondary school leading to the Ugandan Certificate of Education, Ordinary Level (O Level), 2 years of upper secondary school leading to the Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education respectively (Tanner, 2006). After this level, successful candidates usually move on to Universities and Colleges where they study for a period ranging from 2 to 4 years as the case may be. According to UNICEF (2006), access to education is viewed as the duty of governments and all stakeholders to ensure that children are able to enrol in classes at appropriate age for each level or grade. Access to education has been defined in this study as the actual enrolment and commencement of studies in a class in a term.
Evidence, however, seems to show that there were gaps in access to education among the various age groups (Tanner, 2006). To address this gap, Ugandan Government introduced Universal Primary Education (UPE) in 1997. The key policy thrust of the UPE was to make education accessible and relevant to the child (Tanner, 2006). At first, the target of UPE programme was to give free education to a maximum of four children per family (World Bank, 2002). Consequently, there were deficits in access to education and the government amended UPE in 2003 to cater for every child in the family (Bashaasha, Najjingo, Mangheni & Nkonya, 2011; International Programme for Elimination of Child labour- IPEC/Uganda Bureau of Statistics (IPEC/UBOS, 2001). Seemingly, the introduction of UPE, in spite of its shortcomings, culminated in large numbers of pupils graduating from primary school and qualifying to enter secondary school. Thus, there was the need for provision of access to secondary school education for these large numbers of primary school leaving children.
To further improve access to secondary education, Ugandan government introduced the Universal Secondary Education (USE) policy in 2007. The main objective of the USE policy was to increase access to secondary schools by providing free secondary education for the first four years of lower secondary school (Community Development and Conservation Agency [CODECA] CODECA, 2010). Although the USE policy seemed to have increased enrolment into secondary schools since its introduction in 2007/2008, there may still be many children who do not have access to secondary school education in Mukono district of Uganda due to indirect costs such as school uniforms, textbooks, and sundry fees (CODECA, 2010).
Besides access to education, Ugandan education sector has also had to grapple with retention in school. There are basically two types of retention, namely, grade retention and retention in school. Grade retention refers to repeating a grade or an academic year due to poor academic performance. This study is not concerned with grade retention. On the other hand, retention in school or school retention refers to the continuous enrolment and school attendance of the student until he or she successfully completes either primary or secondary school (LSDA, 2003). In this study, retention in school has been defined as the ability of a student to remain in school once enrolled and not drop out. Retention, in this study, also means regular school attendance. Regular attendance means that a student should be present at school at least 75% of school days in each academic year. Students who attend class regularly seem to be more likely to participate fully in class academic exercises, turn in home work, pass continuous assessment and may do better in term tests and may hence exhibit better academic achievement compared to those students who are irregular at school (Hunt, 2008).
Although more than 6 million children were enrolled in primary school in 1999, only 39% of that number managed to reach Primary Five in 2005. Sixty-one percent had dropped out, signifying that retention in school may indeed be a challenge in the Ugandan education sector (Nakanyike, Kasente & Balihuta, 2005). Clearly, the factors that could influence retention are diverse. Colclough, Rose & Tembon (2000) reported that some of the factors included household income, land owning status of a family, main occupation of household head and adult women’s work force participation. Colclough’s study seemed to suggest that children from high social economic backgrounds are more likely to remain in school (and not drop out) compared to children from poor households (Colclough et al., 2000). Colclough et al’s findings although based on research from Ethiopia and Guinea seem to have some similarities with the factors that have been suggested to influence retention in Uganda. Nakanyike, Kasente & Balihuta (2005) reported that lack of school requirements, loss of parents, parents’ chronic illness and children’s chronic illness were the four most important factors that probably influenced retention in schools in Uganda. Four years earlier, the Ugandan Demographic and Health Survey Report by (IPEC/UBOS, 2001) had suggested that monetary cost of schooling was the most important influence on retention in school, and that monetary cost of schooling is associated with poor retention in school.
Furthermore, researchers and policymakers have also been concerned with the academic achievements of students in Uganda. This is because, for a variety of reasons, the standard of academic achievement of students at various schools and national examination levels seem to be deteriorating (Nyankori & Wabukawo, 2002; Ariko, 2009 and Baldwin, 2009). Taking the foregoing discussions into consideration, academic achievement will be defined in this study as the standardized scores obtained by students in continuous assessments and end of term examinations. In investigating child labour as a correlate of access to education, retention in school and academic achievement, it is pertinent to consider the nature of subjects and when they are taught in Mukono district of Uganda. Mathematics and English Language in the Ugandan school curriculum are among the core/ compulsory subjects that students must pass with a credit (minimum) before they may be allowed to proceed to the next level which may be from primary to secondary school or from one class to the next within secondary school. (Nyankori & Wabukawo, 2002; Tanner, 2006; Ariko, 2009). In addition, Ugandan Education Policy places emphasis on mastery of Mathematics and English Language (Ariko 2009). Therefore, these two core subjects (Mathematics and English Language) have been chosen in this study as proxy indicators for measurement of academic achievement (Nyankori & Wabukawo, 2002; Ariko, 2009).
From the foregoing discussions it is evident that researchers have investigated many issues relating to access to education, retention in school and academic achievement in Ugandan. It is however not clear from the literature how child labour (which has been reported to be very prevalent in Uganda and Mukono District in particular) correlates with access to secondary school education, retention in school and academic achievement of secondary school students in Mukono District.
Statement of the Problem
Child labour is a significant social and economic problem in Uganda. The prevalence of child labour in Uganda is also said to be very high as documented in the background. In Mukono District children apparently do work in activities such as agriculture, brick making and laying, fishing, domestic service, telecommunications, hawking and water selling to mention but a few. The total number of child labourers in Mukono district is not clearly known due to inadequate data not only on this district but also on other districts of the country, the prevalence of child labour seems to be high. Importantly, too, children who take part in child labour also fall within the school-going age. This may imply, therefore, that students may be involved in child labour too. Yet, how child labour may relate to access to education, retention in school and academic achievement remained poorly understood, thus necessitating a systematic, empirical investigation.
