Submitted by sep_admin on Fri, 2017-02-17 23:46
Worldwide, an estimated 104 million children are working. Many of them have never attended school or have dropped out very early. About two-thirds of them are girls. Considering that most if not all of these children missing out on primary education are child laborers, efforts to achieve Education for All initiative (EFA) must go hand in hand with efforts to eliminate child labor. Child labor also affects the academic achievement of the considerable number of children who combine school and work, contributing to the early drop-out and entry into full-time work. To these figures one should also add the large number of youth that enter the labor market without or with very limited schooling. The twin challenges posed by out-of-school children and child laborers therefore remain daunting. The paper examines the role of Non-Formal Education (NFE) in helping to meet these challenges. It first reviews international program experience in the areas of NFE and working children and key lessons learned from this experience. Building on this review, it then examines additional research needed to identify where non formal education should fit in the broader effort towards education for all and child labor elimination.