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China
Official records of the People's Republic of China indicate that about 240 million people, out of a total population of approximately 1.3 billion, live in poverty. A more accurate figure may be between 350 and 400 million. These people reside mainly in the west, in mountainous and remote areas.
Whilst efforts are being made by provincial and county governments to improve the well-being and the conditions of people in these remote provinces, it is acknowledged that the extreme ruggedness of many areas makes the provision of infrastructure more costly. This is the case for provision of water, health services and also for the construction of schools and the staffing of them with appropriate teachers.
Many of the small schools do not have qualified teachers. The person in charge of the school invariably has had perhaps six years of education and with a grade 5 pass, has become eligible to become a "non-accredited teacher". The candidate will come from the local community because it is not possible to attract an outsider with adequate qualifications.
Many schools are overcrowded, with between 60 and 90 students per teacher, especially at single-teacher schools where the teacher may teach three or four different age groups.
The inability of parents to pay small fees, and even to purchase books and writing materials, creates the environment whereby young children are drawn into helping their subsistence farmer parents survive. They are entrusted with such duties as looking after goats or water buffalo, fetching water and firewood. Others might assist with ploughing or digging the fields and the carrying of human and animal excrement to remote parcels of land in order to provide organic fertiliser. These activities cannot be performed at night and so many child workers are deprived of the opportunity of going to school and mixing with their own age group and they are given tasks which develop their sense of responsibility at a very young age. They are deprived of an education and the opportunity to develop their potential in order to make a more significant contribution to their community and their culture.
The absence of sound role models in the form of adequately trained teachers, also deprives them of the opportunity to feel creatively about an ambition to which they might aspire. They respect the farming ability of their parents and other members of the community, and at age seven, eight or nine, their mates become farmers and contribute to the family income. In this way, the culture of child labour and child workers is reinforced.
This is not the case for all children in Western China. Many millions do have the opportunity to go to middle school and on to high school, if fees and time permit and if they live nearby. Girl children, however, are the first to leave when finances become short.
However, sponsorship schemes now exist (operated by many NGOs including The Salvation Army Hong Kong) whereby the fees and running costs of a boarding school are paid for and children attend having travelled long distances from their mountain villages. At boarding school they don’t have to work in the fields or do housework, or fetch water or coal. They enjoy being children at school.
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