Hello STEEMIT. Today’s post is the last of the Education in Uganda series, and our topic for today is child labor.
Many of the children who completed 7 years of elementary education, or even those who dropped out start working at a young age. In large cities such as Kampala, child employment rates are about 11% but in rural areas the rates are 3-4 times higher. Child labor is mainly categorized into three fields: Industry, service, and agriculture.
Children working in the industry sector usually do hard physical labor such as making bricks, mining, or quarrying stones. The service sector is not much different. Children engage in basic work that do not require specific skills like working as porters, collecting scrap metal, and cleaning the streets. Surprisingly, over 90% of under-aged children work at the agriculture sector. Children are mainly employed at tobacco, coffee, or banana farms and they usually harvest, carry, and sell agricultural products under supervision.
(Reference: http://factsanddetails.com/world/cat54/sub343/item1577.html)
Alike any other country, the government of Uganda also considers education a basic human right. However, education in Uganda is constrained by many challenges and the basic human rights are being widely infringed. What changes should there be for Uganda to free children from abusive child labor and uphold their basic rights? Please freely share your ideas through comments.
The story continues…
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