EFFECTS OF CHILD LABOUR ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN

ABSTRACT

Children are a special link between the present and the future generation and their academic performances play a vital role in securing their future. This study evaluated the effect of child labour on the academic performance of children in Uhumnwonde LGA, Edo State, Nigeria. The study specifically described the socio-economic characteristics of the children in the study area, the forms of child labour, the level of involvement of children in various forms of child labour, the academic performance of children involved in child labour, and identifies factors which predispose children to child labour. The results of the descriptive statistics showed that 53.3% of the children were males while 46.7 were females; 35% of the children fell within the age bracket of 14-16 (x =13) the modal class (50.8%) fell within a household size of 6-10(x = 8) and 57.5% lived with both their parents. The child labour activity most engaged in was farming related (45.0%), revealing that 35.8% of the children had a low level of involvement for all the child labour activities. The academic performance revealed that 53.3% of the respondents performed well, while 46.7% performed relatively poorly. The major predisposing factor to child labour was poverty (x= 2.03).