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The ILO estimates that there are 250 million children aged 5 to 14 working worldwide. Among these children, at least 120 million are working full time, and almost 80 million are engaged in hazardous work.
There are many reasons why children are found in the workplace and not in school. One reason is the lack of access to basic education. In many countries education is not free, and in most developing countries, schooling is not available for all children.
Providing education and training is the best way to prevent child labour and special educational programmes are needed for children who are removed from hazardous work. To tackle the problem of basic education, one of the goals of the project has been to cooperate with teachers' organizations through the ILO departments of the Bureau for Workers' Activities (ACTRAV) and the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC).
Administered partly through IPEC and partly through ACTRAV, the project has worked closely with both Educational International (EI) and the World Confederation of Labour (WCL).
It is important that the two ACTRAV child labour projects work together when it comes to the selection of countries, particularly since teachers can play a pivotal role in combating the child labour. Teachers are best placed to identify potential dropouts, to know the children's family situation, and they should be encouraged to take an active role in cooperating with labour inspectors to prevent the employment of children.
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