Abstract
Participation in child labour, in both household and non-household activities, gender effects and low educational attainment remain challenges for countries in Latin America. Through hierarchical linear modelling of data from the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), this study seeks to explore the current cross-country trends in the relationship between educational attainment, child labour and gender. While non-household labour is found to have an effect, as per statistical significance and the magnitude, on educational achievement across all Latin American countries; participation in household labour is significant in only two countries (Peru and Uruguay). Girls are found to underperform compared to boys by a significant margin across Latin America. The later part of the study seeks to examine the interaction effects of gender and participation in labour activities. Results show that gender has no moderating effect, suggesting that participation in work itself or workspace (household or non-household) does not influence or contribute to gender inequality in education outcomes. The explanatory factors for gender inequality in education outcomes are potentially rooted in a different sphere of influence which needs to be deciphered through deeper empirical investigation.
Highlights
Academic achievement is important because it is strongly linked to positive outcomes in many other areas
This study would help bridge the gap in literature by examining the association between child labour, and its interaction with gender, and educational attainment measured via test scores
This evidence is important through its uniqueness - it does not originate from a study focused exclusively on child labour or household survey but from a school survey focusing on education
Summary
Academic achievement is important because it is strongly linked to positive outcomes in many other areas. Whether specific forms of work outside of the above can be considered ‘child labour’ is contingent on the age of the child, the nature and hours of the work undertaken and the working conditions and the cultural and legal contexts This is contingent on the individual country and the sector the work falls under (ILO, 1996). Research ignores the potential for responsibilities inside the household to effect educational attainment, any work which interferes with human capital production that would benefit children and society should be considered (Putnick & Bornstein, 2016; Assaad et al, 2010) This kind of unpaid household work is said to be gendered and traditional definitions of work significantly misrepresent the work undertaken by girls It seeks to explore the trends and effects in/of participation of child in labour forms categorised broadly as household labour and non-household labour and its effect on education
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