The children were divided into 4 groups. They were each given a fact sheet (see below) about the imaginary country of Ekinstan. Although imaginary, all of the facts are essentially accurate in one or more developing countries.
The groups were assigned the following roles, and invited to consider the following questions:
The groups were allowed 15 minutes or so to prepare their arguments, then in turn, each group presented its answers and comments on the questions – in their allotted roles. During this stage, interruptions from the other groups were discouraged.
Finally, and still in role, group members were allowed put questions or comments to other groups.
A round-up discussion – out of roles now – on what had emerged and realistic ways of enhancing the children’s future finished the session. Although this is a complex subject with no easy answers, the children taking part did so for the most part in a constructive and thoughtful manner.
Ekinstan is a poor, but fictional, country. As you will see, it has a problem with child labour. By child labour, we mean children of under school leaving age (that is 14 in Ekinstan) working more-or-less full time. This has come to people’s notice recently because it turns out that the official world-cup footballs are being made in Ekinstan - in particular, children, often on low wages mostly do the difficult hand-stitching work.
Here are some facts about Ekinstan to help you:
About ¼ of the school-age children of Ekinstan work. Of these, ¼ of primary-school age, and ¾ of secondary-school age, don’t go to school at all.
These are some of the worst jobs that children do in Ekinstan: In the onion growing plantations of Ankylosoar, a village in central Ekinstan, children start working at very young ages (5-6 years old); in an enormous market place in Godzilla children are vendors and carriers of heavy loads, and in the Southern Volcano site of El Grumpo, where children carry ice blocks of 25 kilos each and sulphur packages of the same weight. The altitude of the volcano is almost 5.000 meters and the temperatures are below zero. The ice blocks are taken down the mountain to a village for making ice cream!
The Ekinstan government have signed an International Labour Organisation (ILO) agreement that no school-age children should be allowed to work so long that they can’t go to school. But it only has a few inspectors to check that the law is being obeyed, and sometimes these are bribed by factory owners to pretend that the factory is not employing children.
Sometimes, factories get rid of adult workers and replace them with children, because they can pay them less.
The factory owners like child workers - their fingers are small and nimble. Also, they are easier to boss around than adults.
Children employed stitching footballs work in relatively good conditions - the work isn’t dangerous or heavy, but the hours are long. Eight- and nine-year olds often work for 5-6 hours a day, and older children work up to 12 hours a day.
A child gets paid about 40p for stitching a football. This takes about 2 hours, for a quick worker. The finished balls are sold by the factory to an American country for about £4. This includes the cost of materials, labour, printing and packing - and profit for the factory. The balls are sold in America and Britain for around £25 !
There is a long history of children working in Ekinstan. Before there were many schools, this was a good way of learning a craft or trade, which they could use to earn a living when they were older. Most of the jobs children do now, though, are unskilled.
Sometimes, a poor family will get into debt with a moneylender and be unable to pay it back. Then the moneylender takes a child to ‘work’ for him until the money is paid. This ‘work’ is exactly slavery - if the child tries to run away, he (or she) is beaten. This is illegal in Ekinstan, but it still goes on.
Children who do not go to school are likely to get stuck in low-paid jobs because they have no qualifications for anything better.
In Ekinstan, 10% of families rely on their children’s wages to survive. This happens if the parents are too sick to work, or cannot get a job.
The Ekinstan government cannot afford to spend very much on schools - a quarter of its money goes to repaying debts to countries like America and Britain. Even so, it still spends more on the army and air force than it does on education.
Many parents who would like to send their children to school cannot afford to do so. The schools themselves are free, but families have to pay for books, uniform and travelling.
A campaign has been started in America to get people to stop buying footballs made in Ekinstan by young children. Does this please people in Ekinstan ? No - they are worried that if the football factories close, the children - especially the girls - will end up doing even worse jobs.