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- Poorly funded, trained and equipped education systems and teachers: There are not enough schools and many schools are not well-equipped in many countries. While the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recommends that governments spend at least six percent of their National Income on education annually, many governments do not ensure education systems with nutritional amenities for certain children so that they can excel in school.
- School fees: At least 101 countries are still charging fees for primary education.7 Even when education is "free," sometimes families are required to cover related costs, such as transportation and school supplies. This makes it difficult for children to stay in school. Children who drop out of school are vulnerable to people use their extreme poverty as an excuse to work.
- Very limited access to education institutions, for example, lack of facilities in rural sub-Saharan Africa: In rural areas, education is often not equally accessible and the quality of available education is low. Rural areas lack educational infrastructure (schools and teachers) more often than urban areas. Children are less likely to enroll in school and more likely to drop out before completing school in rural areas.
- Local-political issues:
- Ethnicity and lower castes: The school enrollment, attendance, and completion rates of children belonging to marginalized ethnic groups (like indigenous peoples) or lower castes are often more affected by inadequate educational infrastructure and less access to education as a result of discrimination, attitudes about education, and/or living in remote areas.
- Gender: Girls face traditional attitudes about female roles and fewer female teachers. Girls are often expected to contribute to household work and childcare. Many girls do not attend school because of low social status or domestic responsibilities. Often these girls end up doing domestic work.
When gender and ethnicity are combined, educational inequalities are even greater. For example, in India nearly all upper-caste Hindu children are enrolled in and attend school. However, there is a strong tendency for girls of "backward" castes and tribes, low-caste Hindus, and Muslims not to attend school. 8
- Long-standing, entrenched and inflexible cultural and/or traditional attitudes and/or practices in certain places or among certain people, for example, among migrant workers, indigenous populations and lower castes: In some cultures, children are traditionally regarded, first, as family members. Family considerations take precedence over children's individual rights. Sometimes, education is considered unnecessary, or even wasteful, especially for girls.
Child labor is accepted or tolerated by some large segments societies, which accept it as normal.9 For instance, household help is an integral part of Philippine society. In India, some consider hazardous work to "belong" to ethnic minorities and disadvantaged lower classes. Children traditionally follow in their parents' footsteps. For example, if the family tans leather (a hazardous occupation) then the children will likely become leather tanners. The perpetuation of caste distinctions is deeply rooted in Indian society.
- Lack of acknowledgement of the problem by some governments, other socio-economic and political actors and even the public at large, and a failure to deal with the issue as a priority.
- Employment practices where small businesses may prefer to employ children as they can pay them less than adults and children are young, defenseless and docile and may be bullied into doing work they should not or work long hours;
- Lack of law enforcement: Refusal to recognize certain kinds of work, such as child domestic work, as hazardous and prohibited for children, poses serious difficulties in implementing laws and monitoring work places. Corruption and a weak judicial system remain serious impediments to the effective punishment and prosecution of child employers and traffickers. Sometimes the very government officials who are responsible for enforcing the law are friends of wealthy child employers and overlook infractions.
- The death of parents or guardians from HIV/AIDS, creating a new generation of child-headed households;
- Armed conflict and children being forced to take up arms or give support in other forms of labor;
- Trafficking or criminal practices, such as commercial sexual exploitation;
- Any combination of the above or other phenomena that either encourage or oblige children to leave their childhood, education and family behind and enter the labor market.
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Teachers Real-Life Collection