Child Labor and Poor Education in Developing Countries

Globalization is amongst the significant factors that are facilitating economic development of both developed and developing countries. This led to the fact that the world has become a global village. The rate at which people interact all over the world has increased more than ever before because of the globalization. Globalization is affecting social, economic and political sectors of all countries over the world. However, it has also come to the attention of many people and sectors that globalization also has many negative effects on many countries across the world. Both business and education sectors suffer as a result of globalization. This is evident both in Bangladesh and Cambodia.

Globalization contributes rapidly to the development of industries in Bangladesh. This leads to an increased demand for manpower and house helpers. This is because globalization helps in development of markets all over the world. While the need of manpower is highly on demand in Bangladesh, there are no men or women who can offer this manpower (Ahmad & Quasem 33). Consequently, many companies and organization seek child labor, which is cheaper and readily available. In Bangladesh, child domestic service is a prevalent practice. A greater number of child domestics tend to be 13 and 18 years old. However, children as young as five or six years also work in most companies. A survey of child domestic workers established that 39% were aged between 12 and 14 years. Approximately 25% comprised of children aged between five and ten years.

According to Ahmad & Quasem (56), “Child domestics work for long hours and sleep very late at night.” Approximately 52% of domestic workers take roughly 12-14 hours daily. Irrespective of gender and age, child domestics attend to all types of household jobs. Boys usually perform jobs like going to the grocery, selling nuts, washing the car, taking the garbage to roadside, among others. On the other hand, girls are supposed to iron cloths, serve guests, and attend to phone calls. The child domestic workers are usually the least paid in Bangladesh with their wages varying from 80 taka to 400 taka monthly (Ahmad & Quasem, 88). In many cases, child domestics control over all their salaries to their parents. Nevertheless, children provide labor in all economic sectors in Bangladesh. Child labor has affected education and the literacy levels in Bangladesh negatively because of boycotting school.

Globalization has also had a tremendous impact on education in Cambodia. This is because learning sector suffers under the leadership of Pol Pot spearheads Cambodian globalization process (Naron 168). This is because many Cambodian leaders embarked on efforts to restructure the society. For instance, the Khmer Rouge regime that closed schools, cut off communication with the rest of the world, among other institutions. As a result, the process saw intellectuals, monks, specialists tortured, executed and humiliated, thus eliminating nearly all the country’s educated people (Naron 197). Since the era of Khmer Rouge, the quality of education and the rate at which people is being taught has reduced significantly.

Globalization affects both child labor and education. In Cambodia and Bangladesh it happens because globalization focuses mostly on job creation. Albeit education is becoming a global issue, the level of its growth is extremely low compared to other sectors like business. It is vital for such countries to focus on how globalization can positively enhance education.