Child Labour among Public School Children: Need for School Social Work Intervention

Author(s) : Munazza Sunbal 1, Tahira Jabeen 2, Ehtsham Jamil 3.

Abstract:

Child labour among school children is a critical issue which effects their education and future success. This research study was focused on identifying the presence of labour activities among public school children, analyzing the labour factor with the chance/risk of school dropout and to assessing the prospects of school social workers in public schools particularly in facilitating the school children. A Mixed method approach with convergent parallel design was adopted. Total 100 students from grade 6 and grade 10 from public schools of tehsil City, district Lahore were selected by using proportional stratified random sampling technique. For qualitative part, teachers and parents of the students were interviewed. The inclusion Criteria for the students was poor attendance and poor grades. Result of this study indicates that students who were involved in labour had 1.83 times more chances to dropout from school as compared to those who were not involved in labour. This study suggests that the education policy should recognize the challenges confronted by students and should introduce school social work to address these issues.

Keywords: Child labour, School Attendance, Academic Achievement, School Dropout, School Social Work.