Measuring the educational impact of child labour: Indicators available from common household survey instruments

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1 Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Understanding Children s Work Project Working Paper Series, April 2008 Measuring the educational impact of child labour: Indicators available from common household survey instruments April 2008

2 Measuring the educational impact of child labour: Indicators available from common household survey instruments Working Paper April 2008 Understanding Children s Work (UCW) Project University of Rome Tor Vergata - Faculty of Economics V. Columbia Rome Tor Vergata Tel: Fax: info@ucw-project.org As part of broader efforts towards durable solutions to child labor, the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Children s Fund (UNICEF), and the World Bank initiated the interagency Understanding Children s Work (UCW) project in December The project is guided by the Oslo Agenda for Action, which laid out the priorities for the international community in the fight against child labor. Through a variety of data collection, research, and assessment activities, the UCW project is broadly directed toward improving understanding of child labor, its causes and effects, how it can be measured, and effective policies for addressing it. For further information, see the project website at This paper is part of the research carried out within UCW (Understanding Children's Work), a joint ILO, World Bank and UNICEF project. The views expressed here are those of the authors' and should not be attributed to the ILO, the World Bank, UNICEF or any of these agencies member countries.

3 Measuring the educational impact of child labour: indicators available from common household survey instruments Working Paper April 2008 ABSTRACT Understanding the interplay between education and child labour is critical to achieving both EFA and child labour elimination goals. This note forms part of UCW broader efforts towards improving this understanding. It elaborates an expanded list of education indicators available from common household survey instruments that can be used for assessing the educational impact of child labour. These indicators cover not only school attendance but also school progression and survival, and therefore extend beyond the information on child labour and education typically provided in the research literature to date.

4 Measuring the educational impact of child labour: indicators available from common household survey instruments Working Paper April 2008 CONTENTS 1. Introduction Expanded list of core education indicators School entry and participation School progression Data requirements and availabilty Expanded core education indicators list: an illustration... 9

5 1 UCW WORKING PAPER SERIES,APRIL INTRODUCTION 1. The international community's efforts to achieve Education For All (EFA) and the progressive elimination of child labour are closely linked. Education and, in particular, education of good quality up to the minimum age for entering into employment is a key element in the prevention of child labour. At the same time, child labour is one of the main obstacles to EFA, as involvement in child labour is generally at a cost to children s ability to attend and perform in school. 2. Understanding the interplay between education and child labour is therefore critical to achieving both EFA and child labour elimination goals. This note forms part of UCW broader efforts towards improving this understanding. It elaborates an expanded list of education indicators available from common household survey instruments that can be used for assessing the educational impact of child labour. These indicators cover not only school attendance but also school progression and survival, and therefore extend beyond the information on child labour and education typically provided in the research literature to date. 3. Child labour is a legal rather than statistical concept, and is defined in broad terms by the international legal standards for child labour. 1 It is not possible to develop any single statistical measure of child labour valid across all countries, as the flexibility clauses in the international legal standards give countries considerable leeway in setting the boundaries for child labour. For the purposes of this note, children involvement in economic activity is used as a proxy for child labour, following loosely on the approach adopted by ILO in its published global estimates of child labour. A similar exercise, however, could be conducted employing a variety of other possible child labour measures. 2. EXPANDED LIST OF CORE EDUCATION INDICATORS 4. An expanded list of core education indicators for use in child labour analysis is presented below.2 When disaggregated by children s work status, these indicators can provide insight into differences between working and non-working children in terms of their ability to enter and participate in school, and to survive and progress through the school system once there. These indicators can also be used to assess differences in school participation, survival and progression within the population of child workers, e.g., child working in different economic sectors, under different 1 Principally, ILO Convention No. 138 (Minimum Age), ILO Convention No. 182 (Worst Forms) and UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. 2 Education Indicators: Technical Guidelines (UNESCO Institute of Statistics, undated) was the main technical resource for this section.

6 2 MEASURING THE EDUCATIONAL IMPACT OF CHILD LABOUR:INDICATORS AVAILABLE FROM COMMON HOUSEHOLD SURVEY INSTRUMENTS work modalities, in different seasons or for different amounts of time each day. This is important in light of the possibility that it is not work per se that interferes with schooling, but the rather the specific nature of the work or the conditions and time intensity with which it is performed. Data requirements for the expanded indicators list are taken up in section School entry and participation 5. Indicators of school entry and participation describe whether children are attending school and, if so, from what age and at what level and grade. For the purposes of child labour analysis, these indicators can help identify whether, and to what extent, child labourers face a greater risk of delayed school entry or exclusion from the school system. They therefore also help identify the constraint child labour poses to the attainment of the goals of Universal Primary Enrolment and Education For All. a. Net intake rate (NIR) shows the level of access to primary education of the eligible population of primary school-entrance age. The formula of the NIR in school year t is the following: where: number of children of official primary school-entrance age a who enter the first grade of primary education in school year t; - population of official primary school-entrance age a in school-year t. b. Gross intake rate (GIR) indicates the general level of access to primary education. The formula of the GIR in school year t is the following: where: number of new entrants in the first grade of primary education in school year t; - population of official primary schoolentrance age a in school-year t. Note, that GIR can be over 100% due to over-aged and under-aged children entering primary school for the first time. c. Net attendance ratio (NAR) shows the extent of participation in a given level of education of children belonging to the official age-group corresponding to the given level in education. The formula for the NAR at level of education h in school-year t is the following:

7 3 UCW WORKING PAPER SERIES,APRIL 2008 where: h - attendance of the population of age-group a at level of education h in school year t; h - population in age group a which officially corresponds to level of education h in school-year t. d. Gross attendance ratio (GAR) shows the general level of participation in a given level of education. The formula for the GAR at level of education h in school year t is the following: where: h attendance at the level of education h in school year t; h - population in age group a which officially corresponds to level of education h in school-year t. Note, that GAR can be over 100% due to the inclusion of over-aged and under-aged pupils because of early or late entrants, and grade repetition. e. Age specific attendance ratio (ASAR) shows the extent of the participation of a specific age cohort in educational activities. The formula of the ASAR of the population of age a in school year t is the following: where: - attendance of the population of age a in school year t; - population of age a in school-year t. f. School attendance parity index (PI) shows to which extent economic children are disadvantaged in terms of their ability to go to school. The formula for the index at an age a in year t is the following: where is the age specific attendance ratio of economic /non economic children. g. School life expectancy (SLE) provides a measure of the total number of years of education that a child can expect to achieve in the future.

8 4 MEASURING THE EDUCATIONAL IMPACT OF CHILD LABOUR:INDICATORS AVAILABLE FROM COMMON HOUSEHOLD SURVEY INSTRUMENTS Relatively higher school life expectancy indicates greater probability of spending more years in education, but expected number of years does not necessarily coincide with the expected number of grades of education completed, because of grade repetition. The formula of the SLE at an age a in year t is the following: where: - attendance of the population of age i (i=a, a+1,,n) in school year t; n the theoretical upper age-limit of schooling; - population of age i in school-year t. h. Out-of-school children is a measure of education exclusion. It is calculated as the proportion of children of official schooling age who are not enrolled in school. 2.2 School progression 6. Indicators of school progression describe the ability of children to proceed in a timely fashion through the school system. For the purposes of child labour analysis, these indicators can help identify whether, and to what extent, child labourers are disadvantaged in terms of being able to perform in the classroom and remain in the school system. a. Transition rate (TR) conveys information on the degree of access or transition from one cycle or level of education to a higher one. The formula of the TR from cycle or level of education h to h+1 in school year t is following: where h number of pupils attending first grade at level of education h+1 in school year t+1; h number of pupils repeating the first grade at level of education h+1 in school year t+1; h number of pupils attending final grade n at level of education h in school year t.

9 5 UCW WORKING PAPER SERIES,APRIL 2008 b. Repetition rate (RR) measures the phenomenon of pupils from a cohort repeating a grade. The formula of the RR at grade i in the school year t is following: where number of pupils repeating grade i in school year t+1; number of pupils attending grade i in school year t. c. Dropout rate (DR) measures the phenomenon of pupils from a cohort dropping out of school. The formula of the DR at grade i in the school year t is following: where number of pupils dropped out of the grade i in school year t; number of pupils attending grade i in school year t. d. Survival ratios (SR) are a measure of the likelihood of attaining a given level or grade of education, with or without repetition. The formula of the SR of pupil-cohort g at grade i for a reference year k is following: where i grade (1,2,n); t year (1,2,..,m); g pupil-cohort; total number of pupils belonging to a cohort g at a reference year k; promotees from who would join successive grades i throughout successive year t; number of pupils repeating grade i, in school year t. e. Grade for age is computed as average grade completed of children currently attending school at a given age. f. Age for grade is computed as average age of children currently attending a given school grade or level. g. Over-aged students is computed as the proportion of children in a given grade or level who are older than the target age for that grade or level.

10 6 MEASURING THE EDUCATIONAL IMPACT OF CHILD LABOUR:INDICATORS AVAILABLE FROM COMMON HOUSEHOLD SURVEY INSTRUMENTS 3. DATA REQUIREMENTS AND AVAILABILITY 7. Data requirements for each of the core indicators discussed above are provided in Table 1. As shown, the data requirements for indicators relating to school entry and participation are less stringent, in that information for only one school year is necessary. The required cross-sectional information on school attendance by grade and age can be derived readily from the education module contained in most standard household survey instruments used for child labour analysis (e.g., UNICEF MICS surveys, IPEC SIMPOC surveys, World Bank LSMS surveys and national labour force surveys). It is worth noting that these surveys instruments typically collect information on current school attendance, a narrower but more useful concept than school enrolment. Unlike most published education statistics, therefore, the school participation indicators are framed in terms of attendance rather than enrolment. 8. Data for indicators relating to grade for age (or the converse) are also readily available from most standard education modules used in child labour survey instruments. Data requirements for other indicators of school survival and progression, however, are more stringent, in that they require information on schooling status for two consecutive school years. This in turn requires either two-year panel data or retrospective questions relating to school attendance (for the calculation of dropout-out rates) and relating to grade level (for the calculation of transition and repetition rates). The survival ratio requires panel data for several years (true cohort method) or data on drop-out and repetition (reconstructed cohort method). With the important exception of the MICS survey instrument, the standard survey instruments used for child labour analysis typically do not meet the data requirements of these school survival and progression indicators.

11 7 UCW WORKING PAPER SERIES,APRIL 2008 Table 1. Data requirements for core list of education indicators Category Indicator Data required Minimum reference period School entry and Net (gross) intake New entrants in first grade of primary education by single years of One school year participation rate age; population of official primary school age Net (gross) Attendance by single years of age for a given level of education; One school year attendance ratio population of the age group corresponding to the given level of education Age specific attendance ratio Attendance by single years of age; population of the corresponding age One school year School survival and progression Child labour disadvantage index School life expectancy Out-of-school children Transition rate Children s work status; attendance by single years of age; population of the corresponding age Attendance by age at all levels of education; population of official school age for all levels of education for single years of age; (or age-specific attendance ratios of all levels of education) Attendance by single years of age; population of the corresponding age Attendance in the final grade of a given cycle or level of education for school year t and new entrants to the first grade of the higher cycle of level of education for school year t+1 Attendance by grade for school year t and number of repeaters from the same cohort by grade for year t+1 One school year One school year One school year Two consecutive school years Repetition rate Two consecutive school years Dropout rate Attendance by single years of age for years t and t+1 Two consecutive school years Survival rate by grade Attendance by grade for years t and t+1; number of repeaters by grade for year t+1 Two consecutive school years Grade for age Attendance by single years of age for a given level of education One school year Age for grade Attendance by single years of age for a given level of education One school year Over-aged students Attendance by single years of age for a given level of education One school year Source: UCW and UNESCO, Education Indicators: Technical Guidelines UNESCO Institute for Statistics 9. Excerpts of education modules from common survey instruments are provided in Figures 1-3 below for the purpose of illustration. The first example, from a Zambia Labour Force Survey, covers current attendance and grade but collects no retrospective information on attendance and grade in the previous year. Similarly, the second example, from the SIMPOC model questionnaire, covers current attendance (level and grade) and retrospective information on ever-attendance and education attainment, but does not cover school attendance in the previous school year. The third example, from the MICS 3 core survey questionnaire, is the only one containing questions on current school status as well as on a child s school attendance, level and grade last year.

12 8 MEASURING THE EDUCATIONAL IMPACT OF CHILD LABOUR:INDICATORS AVAILABLE FROM COMMON HOUSEHOLD SURVEY INSTRUMENTS Figure 1. Household survey modules relating to education: excerpt from the Zambia Labour Force Survey, 2005 Section II EDUCATION AND SCHOOL ATTENDANCE OF ALL PERSONS AGED 5 AND ABOVE Has(Name)ever attendedschool? Whatwasthehighestgrade/level (Name)completedatthislevel? IS(NAME)CURRENTLY ATTENDINGSCHOOL? Whatgrade/levelis(Name) currentlyattending? Yes No>Q6 ENTERGRADE/HIGHESTLEVEL COMPLETED Yes No>>Q6 ENTERGRADE/LEVEL CURRENTLYATTENDING Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Figure 2. Household survey modules relating to education: excerpt from SIMPOC model questionnaire

13 9 UCW WORKING PAPER SERIES,APRIL 2008 Figure 3. Household survey modules relating to education: excerpt from MICS III core questionnaire EDUCATION MODULE For persons age 5 or over ask Qs. 15 and 16 For children age 5 through 17 years, continue on, asking Qs HAS (name) EVER ATTENDED SCHOOL? 1 YES Q.16 2 NO NEXT LINE 16. WHAT IS THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF SCHOOL (name) ATTENDED? WHAT IS THE HIGHEST GRADE (name) COMPLETED AT THIS LEVEL? LEVEL: 1 PRIMARY 2 SECONDARY 3 HIGHER 4 NON-STANDARD CURRICULUM 9 DK GRADE: 99 DK If less than 1 grade, enter IS (name) CURRENTLY ATTENDING SCHOOL? 1 YES Q.19 2 NO 18. DURING THE CURRENT SCHOOL YEAR, DID (name) ATTEND SCHOOL AT ANY TIME? 1 YES 2 NO Q SINCE LAST (day of the week), HOW MANY DAYS DID (name) ATTEND SCHOOL? Insert number of days in space below. 20. WHICH LEVEL AND GRADE IS/WAS (name) ATTENDING? LEVEL: 1 PRESCHOOL 2 PRIMARY 3 SECONDARY 4 NON-STANDARD CURRICULUM 9 DK GRADE: 99 DK 21. DID (name) ATTEND SCHOOL LAST YEAR? 1 YES 2 NO NEXT LINE 9 DK NEXT LINE 22. WHICH LEVEL AND GRADE DID (name) ATTEND LAST YEAR? LEVEL: 1 PRESCHOOL 2 PRIMARY 3 SECONDARY 4 NON-STANDARD CURRICULUM 9 DK GRADE: 99 DK 4. EXPANDED CORE EDUCATION INDICATORS LIST: AN ILLUSTRATION 10. The previous discussion suggests that, even in the absence of retrospective information or panel data on children s schooling status, the standard household survey instruments used for child labour analysis can yield considerable information on how work affects children s ability to enter, participate and progress in the school system. 11. The core education indicators are applied below to the 2005 Zambia Labour Force Survey dataset for the purpose of illustration. They reveal that working children in Zambia are disadvantaged both in terms of their ability to participate in schooling and in terms of their ability to progress through the school system once in it. The core indicators, provided in Tables 2-9, point to a number of specific conclusions concerning the educational impact of child labour in the Zambian context: involvement in economic activity makes it more difficult for a child to attend school at every age, underscoring the importance of child labour as a barrier to achieving Education For All (Tables 3 and 4). The constraint that work involvement poses to school attendance appears to increase as children grow older; young working children in rural areas are the only group whose attendance does not appear to be effected by work involvement; involvement in economic activity reduces the number of years that a child can expect to remain in the schooling system at every age, for both sexes and for both rural and urban place of residence (Table 5).

14 10 MEASURING THE EDUCATIONAL IMPACT OF CHILD LABOUR:INDICATORS AVAILABLE FROM COMMON HOUSEHOLD SURVEY INSTRUMENTS This suggests that work is an important factor behind early school drop-out and consequently reduced levels of education attainment; involvement in economic activity slows grade progression, pointing to the difficulty that working children face in keeping up in the classroom with children that are not burdened with work responsibilities. By the age of 13 years, working children lag almost full grade behind their non-working counterparts, with the gap in progression widening thereafter (Table 8). Looked at another way, working children in grades 1-7 are 1.5 years older on average than non-working children in the same grade range (Table 9). Working students are almost twice as likely as non-working students to be overaged in the primary cycle (Table 10). Working students are also much more likely to be overaged at the secondary level (Table 11). Table 2. Net intake rates, by economic activity, sex and residence, Zambia 2005 Number of children aged 7 currently attending the first grade of primary Number of children aged 7 school Non-eco Total Non-eco Total (b1) (b2) (a1) (c1) (a2) (c2) Non-eco (a1:a2) NIR (b1:b2) (c1:c2) Male 21,816 13,769 35, ,610 65, , % 20.9% 20.4% Female 25,985 11,633 37, ,480 53, , % 21.8% 22.7% Rural 23,532 23,738 47, , , , % 21.1% 20.0% Urban 24,269 1,664 25,933 96,924 6, , % 25.9% 25.1% Total 47,801 25,402 73, , , , % 21.3% 21.5% Total Table 3. Age specific attendance ratios, by economic activity status, sex and residence, Zambia, 2005 age Economic Non economic Male Female Urban Rural Total Male Female Urban Rural Total 7 40% 41% 58% 39% 40% 48% 48% 65% 34% 48% 8 57% 65% 70% 60% 61% 67% 67% 82% 53% 67% 9 74% 78% 89% 75% 76% 80% 81% 90% 69% 81% 10 79% 82% 92% 79% 80% 85% 84% 89% 78% 84% 11 79% 88% 80% 84% 84% 92% 90% 93% 88% 91% 12 83% 86% 98% 83% 85% 87% 89% 90% 84% 88% 13 80% 77% 80% 79% 79% 88% 87% 89% 87% 88% 14 79% 73% 89% 75% 77% 93% 88% 90% 91% 91% 15 78% 63% 67% 71% 71% 88% 87% 87% 88% 88% 16 74% 51% 67% 62% 63% 82% 84% 84% 82% 83% 17 61% 46% 40% 57% 54% 85% 73% 77% 86% 79% 18 51% 28% 31% 40% 75% 50% 61% 62%

15 11 UCW WORKING PAPER SERIES,APRIL 2008 Table 4. School attendance parity index, by sex and residence, Zambia, 2005 Attendance parity index (1=parity in attendance between economically children and non-economically age children) Male Female Urban Rural Total Table 5. School life expectancy, by economic activity status, sex and residence, Zambia, 2005 age Economic Non economic Total Male Female Urban Rural Male Female Urban Rural At age At age At age At age At age At age At age At age At age At age At age Note: the theoretical upper age-limit of schooling=18

16 12 MEASURING THE EDUCATIONAL IMPACT OF CHILD LABOUR:INDICATORS AVAILABLE FROM COMMON HOUSEHOLD SURVEY INSTRUMENTS Table 6. Net attendance ratio at primary school in 2005, by economic activity, sex and residence Number of children aged 7-13 currently Number of children aged 7-13 attending primary school (grades 1-7) Non-eco (a1) (b1) Total (c1) Non-eco (a2) (b2) Total (c2) Non-eco (a1:a2) NAR (b1:b2) Total (c1:c2) Male 445, , , , ,980 1,163, % 71.0% 72.3% Female 443, , , , ,568 1,127, % 75.1% 73.9% Rural 339, ,906 1,057, , ,943 1,533, % 72.2% 69.0% Urban 549,457 67, , ,816 82, , % 81.8% 81.5% Total 889, ,480 1,674,574 1,214,464 1,076,548 2,291, % 73.0% 73.1% Table 7. Net attendance ratio at secondary school in 2005, by economic activity, sex and residence Number of children aged currently Number of children aged attending primary school (grades 8-12) Non-eco Total Non-eco Total Non-eco (b1) (b2) (a1) (c1) (a2) (c2) (a1:a2) NAR (b1:b2) (c1:c2) Male 137,210 83, , , , , % 20.9% 32.8% Female 134,253 72, , , , , % 18.2% 30.1% Rural 44, , , , , , % 16.9% 19.0% Urban 227,345 40, , , , , % 35.8% 51.9% Total 271, , , , ,825 1,359, % 19.5% 31.4% Total Table 8. Grade for age: average grade attained, children currently attending school, by economic activity status and age, Zambia, 2005 Average grade attained Age Non-eco

17 13 UCW WORKING PAPER SERIES,APRIL 2008 Table 9. Age for grade: average age of pupils currently attending grades 1-7 and 8-12, by economic activity status, sex and residence, Zambia 2005 Average age at primary school (grades 1-7) Average age at secondary school (grades 8-12) Non-eco Non-eco Male Female Rural Urban Total Table 10. Overaged students, primary school: proportion of children/youth in primary school who are older than the target age for that level Non-eco number of number of 7-24 number of number of 7-24 Proportion Proportion year-olds in year-olds in year-olds in year-olds in overage overage primary school primary school primary school primary school (a)/(b) (a)/(b) (a) (b) (a) (b) 35.3% Male 97, , % 215, ,731 Female 90, , % 139, , % Rural 92, , % 330,324 1,048,230 Urban 96, , % 24,112 91,686 Total 188,336 1,077, % 354,436 1,139, % 26.3% 31.1% Table 11. Overaged students, secondary school: proportion of children/youth in secondary school who are older than the target age for that level Non-eco number of number of number of number of Proportion Proportion year-olds in year-olds in year-olds in year-olds in overage overage secondary school secondary school secondary school secondary school (a)/(b) (a)/(b) (a) (b) (a) (b) Male 46, , % 65, , % Female 34, , % 25,551 97, % Rural 15,967 60, % 73, , % Urban 65, , % 17,079 57, % Total 81, , % 90, , %