PERSPECTIVES ON CHILD WORK
S.1 WORKING BACKGROUND
S.2.4 Skilled Learners
5.3 REASONS FOR WORKING
As reasons for working were not included in the questionnaire some learners decided to include them in letters. As indicated in Chapter Four, this provided a guide for individual interview questions. This part of the analysis is initiated with reasons from letters and 36 short interviews. They indicated that they work because of abuse, homelessness, school fees, and the need for extra packet money.
5.3.1 Abuse
Figure 16 represents different types of abuse learners' experienced as indicated in their letters.
Figure 16. Types ofAbuse Working Learners are Exposed To
No. of Learners
%age
7
50
3
21.4
2
14.4 7.1 7.1
14
100
90% of learners (13 out of 14) indicated that they work because of abuse from home. Women were reported as the perpetrators. Though uncles, wives, aunts, and mothers-in-law were implicated, the highest percentage (63%) was that of biological mothers. Some examples of extreme abuse are: being burned with
boiling fatty meat, being dumped with the family of the mother's boyfriend, and being left to look after young siblings while the mother became the common-law wife of another man. In a letter, a girl explained how she was wrongly accused of stealing and how an electrical cord was used to punish her. She was later blamed for the death of the woman she worked for. It was alleged that she administered an overdose of medicine to her. This resulted in her feeling guilty even though the learner alleges that other family members told her that the woman died of HIV/AIDS.
In another letter the writer explains how her mother decided to become the common-law wife of a stranger and left her with her siblings. The girl had to work for herself and her siblings. In the process the uncle's wife, who was asked to keep an eye on them by their mother, physically abused her. In this letter a very disturbing picture is given in which children are not wanted by both maternal and paternal relatives. The girl explained how both families pushed them around.
Similar findings were reported in a study of child abuse and neglect done in Washington (NIS-3, 1996) where females were reported as perpetrators. This is consistent with the fact that mothers and mother-substitutes tend to be primary persons held accountable for any omissions and/or failing in care-taking (Kim, 1968). Most learners are in the care of females. Only one learner indicated being sexually abused by a male. This is similar to the findings of NIS-3, (1996) where very few males physically abused children as compared to women abusers. This resulted in children running away from home to stay with friends, relatives, as well as boyfriends. It is in these settings that they exchange their services for shelter and food. The extent of abuse is echoed in a Canadian investigation of runaway adolescents, which found that such adolescents were victims of chronic extreme abuse at a young age, often perpetrated by their biological mothers. The phenomenon of changing accommodation more than 3 times from very early in life has been observed as a factor in several studies (Craig, 1996).
5.3.2 Homelessness
8 of the 14 letters written by learners indicated that they were also homeless. As indicated earlier, learners ran away from home because of various evils perpetrated. In this way they became homeless. They were now staying with people other than their parents. This is in line with a study done in Lima which indicated that girls who are for some reason made homeless are far more likely than boys to be taken in by neighbours who above all, seek unpaid assistance in the house (Rogers & Standing, 1981). This study presents shocking evidence of physical abuse by biological mothers of their children. In one of the letters, the writer who is now 20-years-old explained how she had been changing accommodation since she was 12. She also explained the harsh realities of being a working, homeless learner. She provided either unpaid or very little paid domestic work for many families. In some instances she had been forced to have sex with family members. When trying to protest she would be told that she was given shelter and food for nothing. There were times in her life when she was expected to contribute financially. This meant that she provided domestic services for the family she stayed with whilst simultaneously working for another family for a salary that she would give to the host family.
5.3.3 School Costs
This category includes items such as school fees, stationary, books, transport costs, and school uniforms. About 69% of learners are working for school costs. It is amazing how far girls go in order to remain in school. They were involved in activities ranging from getting money from their boyfriends to paying for themselves as well as their siblings for school needs, to prostitution, being enslaved by relatives of their late boyfriends as well as selling in the streets. The issue of transport to school was discussed at length during interviews. It emerged that the changing of homes by working learners due to reasons such as abuse, parental neglect, as well as the holding of their reports by schools because of
failure to pay school fees in time, resulted in them failing to get places in local schools. Learners were involved in taking young children to and from pre-school to get money for their own transport to school. One of the learners disclosed in a letter that she was involved in prostitution in order to get money for transport to school. Some learners whose parents were pensioners indicatedthat they work to supplement their parents' pension grants. Their parents were unableto cope with school costs. They were from big families relying on pensiongrants for the aged.
This is in line with a study done in Cote 'D Ivoire (Grootaert, 1998), where a work-school combination is likely when the head of the family is older (up to age 56). Surveys mention the cost of schooling as a major problem for poor families (UNICEF, 1997). In this study, learners were working to pay for their school needs as well as the school needs of their siblings. Apart from school fees, learners had to buy uniforms and other extras needed for schooling. According to the studies done in Ghana, though the actual school fees can be minimal, costs related to it are high. In a report by The Girl Education Unit List, economic constraints were at the top of its synthesis of research findings on factors militating against the education of girls (Moletsane, 1999).