On the occasion of June 12th, the international day against child labour, Aob (Algemene Onderwijsbond – General Union of Teachers in the Netherlands) has updated its teaching materials on education and child labour. The three packages all contain a short movie about the life of a child labourer, a teachers’ information guide, a pupil’s information booklet, and some ready-made assignments based on the movie.
The portrayed children are respectively Zara, who misses out school for many months per year as her parents are seasonal workers with whom she picks hazelnuts under a hot sun; Rabab, a domestic worker that left her home and school in a rural area to go to the city to support her unemployed family financially; and two young boys, Ferhat and Abdullah who do go to school, but totally lack the concentration to really learn as they work all afternoon and evening in a badly aired and dusty shoe workshop, surrounded by dangerous chemical substances. The packages are meant to support teachers who want to discuss the consequences of child labour and to raise awareness on the importance of education.
The materials are in Dutch and can be requested at www.aob.nl/lespakket.
Picture: Cherry Duijns
