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MANUAL COMMITTMENT OF EDUCATION TRADE UNIONS,
It is almost accepted by all of us that child labour is an issue of great concern for many countries of the world, including our country. According to the definition of respective International Conventions, child labour encompasses all kinds of work, which as to their nature and conditions, are harmful to child’s health, his/her physical, mental, moral and social development and hinder his/her education. ILO’s (International Labour Organization) trustful data show that around 215 million of children are actually working. 115 million of them work directly in very dangerous jobs, being physically, mentally and morally damaged. 53 million of them are of the age from 5 to 14 years old and 62 million others are of the age from 15 to 17 years old. 60% of working children are engaged in agricultural sector, where only one in five gets paid, while others are engaged in family work. Child labour is a very concerning issue for our country, as well. Poverty, lack of social protection, informal economy, low cost of child labour, parents mentality, habits and behavior of certain groups of people, problems related to education system, as well as the insufficient effectiveness of the work done by governmental and social stakeholders, including trade unions, are some of the main causes of child labour on global and domestic level. Child labour is very harmful to children themselves and causes great damages to adults’ future and society development in general. The main slogan of institutions, organizations and associations involved in the elimination of child labour is: “Childhood means learning and not working. Let’s leave children learn and parents work”
Some of the partners involved with these issues argue that child labour is a problem that should be solved by the governments. As a matter of fact, child labour has got many aspects and there are very complex reasons for its existence, hence we cannot expect only governmental organs and institutions to solve this big problem. It is accepted by almost all of us, that child labour is a very important trade union issue. This is due to: First of all, Child Labour favors informal sector Child Labour damages the negotiating power of trade unions Child Labour affects adult’s unemployment Solidarity and justice principles are trade union’s real foundations Among all trade unions of various branches and professions, education trade unions play an important role in this direction. In this process, both our trade unions, FSASH and SPASH, have been committed and have gained a precious experience in their struggle for the prevention and elimination of child labour. They started to deal directly with this important issue during 1998-2000 and, after 8-9 years of trade union experience, consolidation of their structures and involvement with protection of social-economic interests of their members and teachers in general, it might be considered as the second phase of our trade unions development. During the period 1998-2000, they were engaged within the frame of International Confederation of Trade Unions, ICTU, and Education International, EI, programs. Since 2000 and onward they have established a very fruitful cooperation with the Dutch Trade Unions, AOb/FNV and with ILO-IPEC. During 2002-2011, being supported by Dutch Trade Unions, AOb and FNV, both our trade unions were focused on six districts in the country, where these problems were most evident and there were greater opportunities for a more efficient work, such as Tirana (Bathore area), Fieri, Elbasani, Shkodra, Korca and Durresi.Over 2 400 teachers were engaged within the framework of these projects to work individually with 4500-5000 pupils, who were the target of concrete monitoring work inside the classroom, family, community etc. Very fruitful has been the combination of trainings about international employment standards and child protection, assisted by lecturers and specialists from Dutch Trade Unions, AOb and FNV, with concrete actions undertaken for the reduction of drop outs and returning working children back to school. Of great importance was the involvement of these children in artistic, sportive and cultural activities. Such experience is being consolidated particularly at those schools and districts where AOb/FNV projects were implemented, or supported by EI and ILO-IPEC. Within the frame of these projects, FSASH and SPASH made great efforts to involve some other branche trade unions from both Confederations, KSSH and BSPSH, (textile, handicrafts, agriculture, construction, light industry, commerce trade unions, etc.) for prevention and elimination of child labour. In order to strengthen collaboration among these trade unions, various seminars, round tables, national conferences etc, were organized and many action plans were developed and put into action. Nevertheless, there is still much to be done for working in the same front in the future to reach the same objectives and coordinate joint ativities.
The comittment for creating Child Labour Free Zones “Child Labour Free Zone” is an advanced concept related to elimination of child labour. A Child Labour Free Zone is where: To reach this objective, both programs and projects involve all stakeholders of a certain area, such as teachers, pupils and parents, various community groups, organs of local government, other interested non-governmental organizations etc. Actually, there are under way only pilot programs or projects, which serve as examples that should be enlarged and used to reach the set objectives for building a child labour free society. Levani, first semester of 2010, supported by FNV, Holland Levani comune in Fieri district is a very poor rural area, with a high presence of Roma people. There is a secondary school (“Dino Ismaili” school), with 464 pupils, 20 of which had dropped out and started working. In addition, there were other 94 pupils, out of which 58 females, mainly from Roma community, who were at risk of dropping out, (who used to miss some classes, days or even weeks at school). Efficient monitoring groups were operating for the implementation of this Project, involving more than 60 teachers, pupils, parents, representatives of trade unions, Roma community, local government and Regional Education Directorate, which all together were committed to reach the Project objectives. During the period of Project implementation and onward, various progress analysis have been carried out about the problems faced in reaching the defined objectives. These analysis have played an important role in the continuous progress made at this school. Hence, some good results have been reached regarding both indicators: 16 pupils were withdrawn from working and turned back to school, two of them had surpassed the age of compulsary education, while two females continue to have problems with their parents, because of their age and physical growth. The basis of these achievements was the concrete individual work done with pupils by teachers and other stakeholders. But food packages that were delivered with the financial assistance of Dutch Trade Union, FNV, had a direct impact. Even though very symbolic, they were a good support to teachers’ and pupils’ work and had a great impact on many families of Roma people community. Bathore, in Tirana neighbourhood, second semester of 2010, Bathore, in Tirana neighbourhood, is one of the biggest informal areas in Albania, created after the change of former system in 1991. It has got about 30 000 inhabitants, most of them living in poverty. More than 120 pupils who had dropped out and were working, or were at risk of dropping out, were the target of this project. More than 45 teachers, pupils, leaders of local trade unions, representatives of local government and non governmental organizations of this area, were involved and worked concretely with the pupils and their parents for convincing them to turn back to school. Four monitoring groups, composed of 22 teachers, pupils and parents were established and functioned within the framework of this Project. They paid more than 130 visits in pupils’ families, discussing with their parents and working individually with each of them, also taking into consideration the individual pecularities of each pupil. Korca, August 2010 and onward, supported by AOb, Holland There are 15 873 pupils enrolled and 1 040 teachers employed at the primary education system in Korca district. Local leaders of both trade unions, representatives of school administrations, local government and organizations of civil society, Korca Regional Education Directorate etc, were directly involved in the implementation of the project. As a result of the concrete work done in the framework of this Project implementation, 52 pupils out of 89 who had dropped out, were withdrawn from working and turned back to school, while 256 pupils out of 420 who were at risk to drop out, were totally integrated and improved their results at school. Being directly supported by the Dutch Education Trade Union, AOb, the work is going on and other positive results are expected to be reached, not only at these two schools, but also at other schools of this district, which might get involved in such projects in the future.
Some practical guidelines about the comittment of education trade unions on child labour prevention and elimination
The experience shows that to sucessfully reduce drop outs, prevent and eliminate child labour, we should take into consideration the main directions of education’ trade unions work:
Seminars and other activities should be focused on the following issues:. - International standards and legal framework as to prevention and elimination of child labour; how to get better acquainted with and how to implement them, (United Nations Convention on Child Rights, ILO Convention No. 138 on Minimum Age, ratified by Albania in 1999, and the respective Recommendation, ILO Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, ratified by Albania in 2001, and the respective Recommendation, Decision of Council of Ministers on the List of Dangerous Jobs etc.). -The real situation of child labour in Albania and the role of education trade unions in cooperation with governmental institutions, ILO-IPEC and Albanian NGO’s interested in these issues as to prevention of child labour. - Causes of child labour, as to demand and supply, impacts of child labour on the child himself, his/her family and society. - Coordination and collaboration with school administrations, local government, parents and community for preventing and eliminating child labour. - Teachers’ individual work with problematic pupils, ( those who don’t have good results at school, are at risk to drop out, have got problems with their parents who might have been sued to court, who have lost one of the parents or have neither of them, as well as children from Roma and Egyptian communities), by dealing individually with concretecases in the respective districts. The following organising measures should be taken to reach the objectives set within this frame: - Take adequate measures to get acquainted with the real situation and define the objectives for its improvement. To this aim, it is necessary to develop questionaries with detailed data about pupils who have dropped out and are working, as well as about those that are at risk of dropping out, which are the causes of this situation, which is the economic situation of their families, which is their parents behaviour etc, and developing individual plans for each targeted pupil, based on these data. - Establishing and making functional the Monitoring Groups, on two levels: - on district level with the participation of representatives from trade union section, Education Directorate, local government, parents and pupils, non governmental organizations dealing with these issues and; on school level, composed of teachers, pupils, parents and representatives of school administration etc. These groups constitute the cores which bring together the most active and deligent teachers who define the concrete actions that should be taken regarding the pupils who have dropped out or are at risk of, consisting in: a. Organization of public discussions with teachers involved and selected pupils, aiming at discovering the causes of drop outs and working individually with every pupil, to find out their problems, family needs and define the methods that should be used for returning back and integrating them to school. b. Tutoring pupils who have dropped out or are at risk to, by teachers and pupils who will be directly engaged in this work, c. Develop questionaires with all required data about each target pupil and cooperate with tutoring teachers about issues related to continuation of teaching process and pupils’ progress. d. Working together with pupils’ government and parents’ committee, for assisting target pupils by also involving the best pupils in the respective classes. e. Undertaking concrete and individual actions with pupils who have dropped out or are at risk to, especially dealing with those who are actually working, their parents and relatives, in cases when there are efforts to drop them out of school. It is important that teachers, pupils and all those committed to work in groups or individually, should use the adequate arguments to convince, not only the children but also their parents and relatives about the indispensability of education, since it is important, not only for the child’s prospect development, but also for his/her family which is responsible for his/her education and preparation to face the challenges of the future. It is also important for the entire society which cannot develop and prosper without educated people, capable to successfully meet time requirements and challenges of the future. f. Organization of cultural, artistic and sportive activities with the participation of all target pupils, aiming at making school and learning as attractive as possible for each of them. g. Working closely with local government about these issues as to finding out any job opportunities or food aids for extreme cases. h. Of particular importance is the coordination of all this work with school Directories and Regional Education Directorates in the respective districts. An important part of this collaboration is the inclusion of issues related to minimization of drop outs and elimination of child labour in the collective agreement of second level, based on Article 10 of the Collective Agreement of the first level already in power, where the obligations of parties are well defined. Massive use of publications produced by education trade unions such as: ILO-ACTRAV Manual, “Trade Unions and Child Labour”, “SCREAM” Modules, the Manual “Teaching and Learning in the Informal Education”, as well as divulgation of achieved results and best experiences through communication means, TV channels, newspapers etc. There is no doubt that the organization of all these activities requires very powerful trade unions, experience and sufficient financial means. Hence, trainers, dedicated activists as well as financial sources can be found if there is close collaboration between central trade union presidencies and district sections to organize training seminars, workshops and other qualification courses for the people who are involved directly with activities for preventing and eliminating child labour, developing discussions about these issues or exchanging experience etc. But, there exist other opportunities for raising sufficient funds from various domestic or foreign donators, by developing concrete projects about reducing drop outs, preventing and eliminating child labour.
EXTRACTS FROM THE COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT OF
Article 10 10.1 Both education trade unions, FSASH and SPASH, should be committed for the reduction of drop outs and elimination of child labour, using their own resources, as well as other support, especially from Education International, EI, other homologue trade unions and so on. 10.2. By training the leaders and members of trade unions and using various concrete forms of work at school and in the community, they aim at increasing the number of teachers working with pupils who drop out or are at risk to, by creating an attractive and parental environment for the elimination of child labour. 10.3. The Ministry of Education and Science, considering it as one of its strategic priorities, supports this committment and guarantees the willingness of school administrations to undertake joint actions, by promoting and involving both pupils and parents’ forums, as well. 10.4. Proposed by signers of the Collective Agreement, FSASH and SPASH, the Regional Educational Directorates remunerate, from the special fund, the teachers who have been directly involved and reached measurable results as to the reduction of drop outs and elimination of child labour.
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