Child Labor Effecting Academic Performance in Nigeria
Poverty has truly taken its toll on the world society as a whole. It is the predominant trait of most developing countries in the contemporary world of today. Alongside the vast infrastructural advancements and financial booms in the world economy, many people live in poverty and starvation. Especially in developing countries, majority of its populations are composed the less fortunate without enough financial resources to fend for themselves, much less any resources to avail of common healthcare and general education.
In the case of Nigeria, the society is so much riddled with the onslaught of poverty and hunger that people barely sufficiently pass by each day. Most families try to cope with the excess of poverty in their areas through the means of labor. Most of them are so much in poverty that even their children are forced to help their parents in providing for their daily needs.
According to statistics, more than fifteen (15) million children in Nigeria who are below 14 fourteen years age are under employment. Most of them work to support their families and to be able to pay for their own schooling[1]. Studies have shown that over half of the 15 million working children are still under tutelage of the national public school system. Despite the cheapness and availability of the education, poverty has not allowed them to be able to attend their schooling effortlessly. They would still have to be able to provide for miscellaneous expenses such as school supplies, books and clothes to wear each day—uniform. On a different note, one would need to recognize the fact that almost half of these working children do not even attend school at all. Other findings show the veracity of the issue in the fact that almost about 7.8 million boys and 7.2 million girls who are working span the ages of 5 to 14.
Most of the children fortunate enough were documented to have work in the part-time schedule in order to pay for their school expenses. Also, there are those children who end up not finishing their studies after all their efforts in order to fulfill the wish of their parents to quit school altogether so as to further expand the families’ financial resources.
However, studies show that this may result to the students not being able to conform efficiently to the school’s schedule. The working students are mostly forced to skip classes because of the requirements to be fulfilled at work[2]. Moreover, some working students are also unable to participate in most of the activities of their school since when there is time that are seen by the students as not as important as everything else, they would choose to spend their days working instead of in school.
Another facet of this issue is the fact that because of their work, not only their time is being sacrificed to produce financial resources at such a young age, but also their energies and effort. Most children who work already tend to lose their energy after a day’s work in wherever place they choose to work in.
The fact that these children, through missing a lot of valuable holistic school time, are also missing the joys and innocence that life can afford at the singular time of childhood is truly depressing. One can even see the endless cycle with which these children are trapped into. These children often are pushed into labor because they want to be able to pay for matriculation fees and other miscellaneous expenses connected to studying. However, one may find it ironic that their efforts mostly prove to be more detrimental since they are, in their efforts, forced to sacrifice their valuable time and efforts because of their jobs.
One hope that can be placed in their situation is the efforts made by concerned international organizations such as the International Labor Organization for arbitrating a change into the countries’ policies on child labor. The universal requirements for labor now include Nigeria in implementing a minimum age requirements for the eligibility of employment. One may only hope to save these children from labor at such young ages. For now, going to school may be their best of hope of actually rising from poverty.
References
IRIN 2010, 15 million children work: mainly to pay for school, United Nations, Geneva
Nigeria Country Programme 2005, Child labor: information sheet, UNICEF, Nigeria
[1] IRIN 2010, 15 million children work: mainly to pay for school, United Nations, Geneva
[2] Nigeria Country Programme 2005, Child labor: information sheet, UNICEF, Nigeria
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