Providing educational opportunities as an alternative to child labour

Going back to school

In 2020, global progress against child labour stalled for the first time in over two decades. 160 million children remained in child labour and 79 million remained engaged in hazardous work. This was a threat to the sustainable development goal of eradicating child labour in all its forms. 

71 per cent of child labour is found in agriculture, and the cotton sector is no different. To change this narrative, the CLEAR Cotton project exists to contribute to national efforts to remove child labour from cotton, textile and garment sectors in the largest cotton-producing regions in Burkina Faso, Mali and Pakistan. To achieve this aim, the project is focused on education and skills acquisition to help beneficiaries escape the cycle of poverty. With education, children are given the tools and skills needed to find decent work and live better lives.

Redoubling efforts to keep children in schools and off fields, the Accelerated Schooling Strategy (Stratégie de Scolarisation Accékérée Passerelle, SSA/P), a teaching programme created by the Stromme Foundation (NGO), was adopted by the Governments of Burkina Faso and Mali to reach out to children in or at risk of child labour. 

In Burkina Faso and Mali, the Accelerated Schooling Strategy had already been implemented under the supervision of the Ministries of Education for several years. The project contributed to extending the programme to cotton-growing areas. First, assessments were conducted to identify children in or at risk of child labour, in partnership with local public authorities and communities. Awareness-raising sessions were then held with parents, management committees and communities on the dangers of child labour. Centre animators (teachers) were trained after which the centres were opened.

In Burkina Faso, the Accelerated Schooling Strategy was implemented by the NGO Faso Action pour le Développement Communautaire (FDC). 40 new centres were opened in the communes of Ouarkoye, Bondokuy and Dédougou. A total of 1097 children, including 502 girls, were enrolled in the centres. Committees to monitor child labour in the localities where the centres were located were also established. in June 2022, in collaboration with the Permanent Secretariat of the Accelerated Schooling strategy of the Ministry of Education and the Directorate for the Fight Against Child Labour of the Ministry of Labour, key stakeholders were trained on better integrating and addressing child labour issues into the SSA/P. The pass rate for pupils was above 90 per cent. On passing, the children were transferred to mainstream schools for the next school year.

“The project enabled children who were out of school for various reasons (working in the cotton fields, parental vulnerability, displacement due to insecurity, etc.) to be provided with an education. From 2011 to 2022, the Accelerated Education Strategy (SSA/P) has helped transfer more than 100,000 children who were out of school to [formal] schools after 9 months of teaching/learning. With the closing of schools due to insecurity, SSA/P has become as an alternative means of education in emergency situations.”

Ms Cathérine Kabore, Permanent Secretary of the Accelerated Educated Strategy, Government of Burkina Faso

“I was a shepherd and I also worked in the cotton fields. Since I joined the centre, I don’t go there anymore. I am happy because I will acquire knowledge and later on work.”

Inoussa Kabore, 11 years old, beneficiary

David Sama, a farmer from Oulani in Burkina Faso, was a beneficiary of the project. To cope with the demands of farming and having no one else to help, he withdrew his son from school. The project sensitized David Sama and he understood why it was important his son remained in school. His son, Paulin was enrolled in an SSA/P program and finished first in his class. Davd Sama is now an advocate against child labour in his community. He shares the answers he received from the project to sensitize other parents, to let them know, in his terms, that it is not right to bring a child into the world and tell them to go and work in the fields. For him, all children belong in school.

“My son didn’t want to leave school, he refused. But as I was his father, he had to do what I said. His behaviour towards me then changed. He was angry with me because he liked school very much. So, I told his mother, ‘If that’s the way it is, I’ll send him back to school’.”

David Sama, farmer, father of a child withdrawn from child labour

In Burkina Faso, the project was particularly successful thanks to the combination of the education opportunities with the FAO conditional cash transfers, with one condition being enrolling and keeping their children in school.

In Mali, the accelerated schooling strategy was implemented by the NGO GRAADECOM. The ILO ACCEL Africa project complemented CLEAR Cotton’s interventions with the creation of new accelerated schooling centres in cotton-growing and gold-mining areas. Among the 60 centres opened, 1,500 children benefitted from the accelerated schooling programme, and 1,422 of them were then mainstreamed into formal schools.

The SSA/P programme enabled children to leave the cotton fields. This is the case of Aïssata Sanogo. Aged nine, Aïssata worked with her parents in their cotton field but thanks to the CLEAR Cotton project, she was able to stop working and go to the education centre. She will join the mainstream school system in her village of Solomani Bougouni, in the Sikasso region of southern Mali, at the beginning of the next school year.

Due to the COVID pandemic, the centres had to close in the spring of 2020. However, they reopened several weeks later, with classes organised in small groups on a rotational basis. The centres were equipped with hand-washing stations and the children were provided with masks.

Pakistan has the second-highest number of out-of-school children in the world. Many Pakistani children cannot get an education because of issues of mobility and access. To take learning to the field, the CLEAR Cotton project partnered with the local government and the NGO Bunyad Literacy Community Council (BLCC) to set up education centres at their doorsteps.

Another form of accelerated schooling strategy was implemented in 8 Union Councils (villages). In a plan approved by the Government, the NGO BLCC set up 32 Decent Work Cotton Resource Centres (DWCRCs). 1683 children aged 5 to 15 were offered an abridged version of primary education through a 3-year programme before reintegrating into formal schooling. 

To obtain these results, the project worked with parents, especially mothers. In rural communities of Pakistan, women are still primarily responsible for childcare and are more likely to use their incomes towards household needs. This is why BLCC provided specific support to mothers, by linking them to available social safety nets or offering them literacy classes. Women became agents of change within their communities. As a result, children’s enrolment in government schools increased, communities asked for further non-formal education opportunities, and parents committed to supporting the education of their children and in particular of girls.

Vocational training for older children

In Burkina Faso, Mali and Pakistan, vocational training was offered to children aged 14-17 who were withdrawn from child labour in cotton production.

In Burkina Faso, the project signed three agreements for the implementation of integrated programmes for the prevention, identification and withdrawal of children aged 14 to 17 in child labour or at risk of child labour in the cotton, textile and garment value chain. The support for the socio-professional reintegration of children removed from child labour is the other component of these agreements – in partnership with the ILO project Towards SDG 8.7.

The NGOs “Faso Action pour le Développement Communautaire (FDC)”, “Coordination nationale des associations et jeunes travailleurs du Burkina (CN/AEJTB)” and the “Association No-Bièl” identified older children in the cotton fields through a process involving cotton producers’ cooperatives and local social services. This was done by analysing the children’s age, involvement in the cotton value chain, the activities carried out and their workload. The children were withdrawn from child labour and, based on their interests, provided with short modular training courses in areas such as solar electricity, dyeing, soap making and small cattle breeding.

Latifatou Ouedraogo is a beneficiary of the project’s vocational training programme where she’s learning to be a seamstress. A 14-year-old Burkinabe girl, Latifatou stopped going to school in the second year of elementary school when terrorists shut down her school. She fled the volatile area and settled in Ouagadougou where she started working at a second-hand shop. Sometime later, Latifatou became a beneficiary of the Clear Cotton project, escaping poverty and child labour.

“Ever since I was a little girl,
I dreamed of becoming a seamstress. Thanks to this work, I will be able to have a decent life. It will get me out of poverty so that my family and I don’t have to worry about anything.”

Latifatou Ouedraogo, 14 years old, beneficiary

Similar vocational training programmes were carried out in Mali in collaboration with the NGO ALPHALOG and in Pakistan with the NGO BLCC (Bunyad Literacy Community Council).