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International Labor Office issues report on child labor

12 June 2008 07:10 (UTC +04:00)

ILO Director-General Juan Somavia said â€œWe must work for every childâ€™s right to education so no child has to work for survival. The goal is quality education for children and decent work for adultsâ€. The ILOâ€™s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) published a new technical report on child labor and education based on surveys of child labor in 34 countries from all regions of the world. The report cites UNESCO statistics showing that some 75 million children of primary school age were out of school in 2006, a reduction from 103 million in 1999. IPEC also said that at the level of secondary school, average attendance is just 46 per cent for boys and 43 per cent for girls, and in sub-Saharan Africa only one child in five attends secondary school. Mr. Somavia called for an â€œeducational dimensionâ€ in the struggle against child labor, saying â€œlet us pledge to work together for education for all children at least to the minimum age of employment, education policies that reach out to child laborers and other excluded groups, properly resourced quality education and skills training and education for all children, and decent work for adults. I urge you to lend your voice and action to the worldwide movement against child laborâ€, said in the report.