Jamie Glueck for The New York Times

The Cessation of Child Labor

Education a possible solution for child labor

By JAMIE GLUECK

Child labor is a prominent tribulation in many countries. In Pakistan there has been a 32% increase of children under 18 working in the last year. Over 150 million children have to work laborious and menial jobs instead of attending school. Many representing countries in the International Labor Organization believe that the only way to end the child labor epidemic is by keeping kids in school. Korea, Montenegro, Turkey, Venezuela, the United States and many more all agreed that the only way to end child labor is through education.

 There are other countries, however, who think differently. Japan stated that the best way to reduce child labor is by a stricter enforcement of laws. Uzbekistan and Croatia are among the few that actually oppose using education to reduce child labor. Croatia argued that “education is a luxury that only developed countries can afford.” Croatia believes that education will not stop child labor as a whole or at all, although they did not provide any data to back up their argument. Uzbekistan arguably had the most controversial statement, saying, “In many countries, many people do not want to work.” Uzbekistan believes that having people who are uneducated is critical because that way there are more people to perform domestic jobs. Uzbekistan believes that schooling above 8th grade

should be optional. Denmark, Macedonia

and Turkey reiterated this requirement of elementary schooling.

It is evident that the majority of countries agree that education is a vital first step for the termination of child labor, but it was also generally agreed that education is costly. Australia   suggested   that   funds from  the United Nations should be put towards education. Many countries agreed. The debate of using education to end child labor is still up in the air, but the majority of the delegates seemed to agree on the importance of education. If a country has enough money and resources to provide education, the consensus was that it should be a high priority as an attempt to reduce child labor.