This article addresses a particular area of research in the field of education
and child protection: the protective role of schools in the contexts of HIV/
AIDS and poverty. Such adverse situations may lead children not to enroll
in school or to drop out of school and subsequently to be subjected to abusive
child labor and, in some cases, the worst forms of child labor (WFCL).1 I
argue that the mutually reinforcing relationship of HIV/AIDS and poverty
in many countries is leading to increasing child labor and that schools need
to respond to this situation through policies that protect vulnerable children
from dropping out and from abuse when they are at school. Further, I demonstrate
that the HIV/AIDS pandemic has led to a breakdown of traditional
and family-based safety networks in many communities, adding to the difficult
situation experienced by orphans, children who are heads of families, and
children who are caregivers to sick parents. The school emerges as the institution
that can take over some of the protective and socializing roles that
parents and the community have traditionally provided.
The education literature discussing the relationship between the role of
schools in child protection and child labor is limited.2 This gap is surprising,
especially in the contexts of extreme poverty and high rates of HIV/AIDS,
since these phenomena result in many children who do not attend school
or drop out of school and become involved in abusive forms of labor at an
early age. Many impoverished families are challenged to bear the direct and
opportunity costs of children’s schooling (ILO 2006). This situation is exacerbated
in the context of the HIV/AIDS crisis in that, when parents areincapacitated or die from the disease, there is an even greater need for
children not to attend school. Pressure mounts for them to work as agriculture
workers, as herders, or—especially for girls—as caregivers for parents
and younger siblings (ILO/IPEC 2003). Therefore, child labor, and specifically
WFCL, is increasingly a focus for many governments and development
agencies (USDOL 2008).
Hence, the research question that I address is, in societal contexts that
are characterized by high levels of HIV/AIDS and poverty, what can schools
do to encourage enrollment and to prevent dropout, outcomes which in
many cases lead to abusive child labor? To respond to this question, I conducted
case studies in two countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Namibia and
Swaziland.