Overview Have you ever watched or participated in a debate? Typically both sides in a debate are very passionate about their viewpoints. Have you ever taken a moment to try to understand what sources

Peter Dalglish June 12, 2008 International Herald Tribune International Herald Tribune Article 736 words (Level 5) 1480LFull Text: Many of the international organizations that strive to eliminate the exploitation of children in the labor force place their main focus oneducation. Without education, abusive forms of child labor often perpetuate themselves. Children who work under harsh conditionsoften lack adequate nutrition, health care, and security, as well as education. These factors frequently prevent the child from workinghis or her way out of poverty and abuse. Educating children, even those who work, greatly improves their chances of finding betterpositions in life and can end a vicious cycle. When more children are educated in a country, the result is often an increase in nationalincome levels.Byline: Peter DalglishKATMANDU, Nepal -- You can find courage in the most unlikely places. Less than a kilometer from the entrance to Thamel,Katmandu's unofficial backpacker and hippie headquarters, a dozen ragtag children from the poorest elements of Nepali society arepouring over their mathematics and language books in a borrowed classroom.Their hands, reddened and calloused from countless hours devoted to scrubbing floors and washing other people's dirty laundry,provide hard evidence of their employment as servants to the city's burgeoning middle class. But whatever these disheveled girls andboys lack in decorum is more than made up for by the zeal they demonstrate in attacking their lessons.The education project is the brainchild of Manoj Gautam, the 21-year-old founder of Roots & Shoots Nepal, the local affiliate of therenowned biologist Jane Goodall's international youth movement.Alarmed by the growing phenomenon of children as young as nine years age being hired by strangers as domestic servants, Gautamand fellow university students convinced the British Council in Katmandu to open its doors to children whose work prevented themfrom enrolling in government primary schools.With no funds to pay for full-time educators, the university students have taken up the responsibility of teaching bruised and batteredkids who regularly arrive for their lessons fatigued and hungry. All the children have had to negotiate with their "owners" forpermission to attend the classes.For most of the child domestic workers studying at the British Council, this is the first time that they have received any formalinstruction. The impact of the twice-weekly classes on each of them is profound."Basic education frees child servants from the drudgery and misery of their workplace," Gautam says. "They are not accustomed tobeing treated with respect, or even being addressed by their proper names."Throughout South Asia, the poor quality of education and harassment in the classroom contribute to the vulnerability of hundreds ofthousands of children to exploitative forms of child labor. Most children who fail to complete primary education join the workforce as ameans of supporting their families.Girls and boys in Nepal between the ages of 10 and 16 are traditionally employed in the agricultural sector, in brick and carpetfactories, as drivers' assistants, breaking stones, on farms, in coal mines and as porters along trails in remote locations.June 12 has been designated by the United Nations as "World Day Against Child Labor," and this year attention is being focused onthe challenge of providing free and compulsory education. The International Labor Organization has underlined the importance of ensuring access to primary schooling as the most effectivemeans of preventing children from being condemned to dead-end and often dangerous jobs that few adults would be willing toperform.T here can be no doubt that the cause is just.Having just emerged from 11 years of armed conflict that transformed schools across the nation into recruiting stations for Maoistrebels - who on April 10 won 220 of the 601 seats making up the Constituent Assembly - Nepal now faces massive challenges inreforming its antiquated and under-funded education system.School fee and school uniform requirements prevent many children from enrolling. Classrooms are Spartan, devoid of teaching aids,including simple charts and maps. The lack of separate toilets and a scarcity of trained female teachers mean than many mothers arereluctant to send their young daughters to school.Schools in Nepal promote rote learning and memorization rather than creativity and critical thinking skills. Children vote with their feet:Bored with their classes, 35 percent of all children in Nepal who enroll in primary school drop out before completing grade eight.As a result of the recent national elections, working children in Nepal can now count on at least one member of the ConstituentAssembly who is committed to championing their cause.Shanti Adhikari, elected as a candidate for the Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist Leninist, over the years has earned thereputation of being a powerful advocate for child domestic workers across South Asia.Back at the British Council, inspired by the story of a black American raised by a single mother who dreamed at an early age ofbecoming president of the United States, Manoj Gautam has taught his young charges their first words of a foreign language: "Yeswe can!"*Peter Dalglish is executive director of the South Asia Children's Fund.By Peter Dalglish COPYRIGHT 2008 International Herald Tribune http://www.iht.com (MLA 8th Edition) Dalglish, Peter. "Working to learn; Child labor." , 12 June 2008, p. 9. ,https://link-gale-com.ccco.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/A180024116/GIC?u=aur58810&sid=GIC&xid=78476d20. Accessed 13 Feb.2020. GALE|A180024116