Education: the right response to child labor

World Day Against Child Labor will this year be marked by thousands of events in scores of countries around the world on 12 June with a focus on the need to improve access of children to education as the right response to child labor, reads a release issued by the International Labor Office (ILO), quoted by Info-Prim Neo. The International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) of the International Labor Office (ILO) says its latest estimates indicate that of some 218 million child laborers worldwide, millions are either denied educational opportunities that would give them a better future or must balance work with education. IPEC says this may be due to the costs involved, because their families rely on them to work, or simply because there are no available school facilities. To tackle child labour the ILO is calling on governments to provide education for all children at least to the minimum age of employment. Also, the ILO calls on the UN member countries to insure equal education opportunities for both boys and girls. The ILO’s goal is the progressive elimination of all child labor worldwide. The worst forms of child labor, which include hazardous work, commercial sexual exploitation, trafficking of children and all forms of slavery, among others, should be abolished as a priority. 30% of the children interviewed in a UNICEF research in Moldova answered they are impelled to perform household works to the detriment of activities specific to their age, as school, playing, hobbies, communicating with friends. The study points out that these children have few friends, weaker results at school, are more isolated, what negatively affects their psycho-emotional, intellectual and, not the least, physical development.