Eng. 100 Sum. 160 Elshimi, Spr.

2000

Directions: You have three quarters of an hour to read and summarize the following passage. The number of words in the passage is indicated in brackets, at the end of the passage. Your summary should be approximately one third the length of the original text.

Children and Labor

Nobody knows for sure the extent of child labor. Countries protect their reputations by not keeping those sorts of statistics. However, the International Labor Organization estimates that 120 million children aged 5 to 14 work full-time and a further 130 million work part-time. However, the figure may be as high as 500 million when including the numbers of children doing domestic work. Not all forms of labor exploit children, since in the majority of cases, children work directly for their families - in the home, in the fields or on the streets - simply to ensure that they can survive. However, much child labor is exploitative - many children are forced into dangerous or grossly underpaid work in factories, plantations or domestic service. Children are also sold into prostitution or 'bonded' labor, where they work to pay off debts incurred by their parents or grandparents. The rate of repayment is so low that bonded labor becomes child slavery. According to UNICEF in its 1997 State of the World's Children report, there are various factors which force children to work. Most children who work are forced to work because of the poverty of their families. The parents of child laborers are generally unemployed or underemployed and desperate to find work themselves. However, unscrupulous employers are often more willing to employ children rather than adults because they pay children less. Recent developments in national and international economic systems have also affected the world's poor dramatically. As developing countries attempt to reduce their international debt, they reduce the amount of money they spend on basic social services, such as education. This hits the poor especially hard and, in some countries, has been linked to the explosion in child labor. In addition, in many developing countries the education system is underfunded and in decline. But the problems facing the school system are more than just a lack of resources. Many organizations claim that school curricula are outdated and fail to meet the needs of children. As a result, keeping children in schools can often prove to be more difficult than getting them to enroll in the first place. The exploitation of children for labor is an infringement of the Convention on the Rights of the Child - an international law to which nearly every country in the world is committed. To overcome the vast and complex of child labor, UNICEF has advanced a number of strategies. The most effective way to reduce the flow of school age children into abusive forms of work is to extend and improve education. Currently 140 million children aged between 6 and 11 do not attend school and potentially a similar number of children drop out early. Primary education must be universal and compulsory with programs that attract and retain children. Legislation, also, has a vital role to play in fighting child labor. Laws and their enforcement will not defeat child labor on their own but it will not happen without them. Countries should consider creating comprehensive and complementary laws that address child labor - both for the formal and informal sphere - that are consistent with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In addition, governments tend to take notice of issues and respond swiftly when large groups of people become passionately involved. Thus, in many parts of the world, including the Philippines, South Asia, Kenya, Sri Lanka and West Africa, community, church, non-government and trade union groups have successfully brought attention of people and governments to the plight of child laborers. One example is ECPAT (End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism) which has campaigned effectively to highlight the issue of commercial sexual exploitation of children in Asia and around the world. (609 words)
(Readability: 12)