The Effect of Child Work on Schooling: Evidence from Egypt

Summary: This paper includes causal evidence that lower crude rates of school attendance for Egyptian children are not due to limited access to schools but rather to a substantial burden of work.

Although some activists argue that all child labour should be abolished, the authors prefer a more nuanced approach which does not assume that all work - whether it is paid or unpaid, labour force or domestic - is good or bad for children and youth. While some work activities of children are unquestionably detrimental to their physical and/or mental well-being, most tasks undertaken by Egyptian 6-14 year olds do not fall clearly in these categories. On the other hand, the conventional measures of labour force work often ignore a variety of child activities that could potentially jeopardise their schooling. This is especially true for girls who must often do domestic chores, which are not captured in the conventional definitions of work, for many hours each day.

The population discussed in this paper includes those young people who are expected to be in school, according to Egyptian law, and who are defined as children under most international conventions: girls and boys ages 6 to 14 years old. The analysis, however, also includes 15 to 17 year old youth to test whether the relationship between work and schooling changes fundamentally after the completion of basic schooling, the point at which work becomes legal and further schooling optional in Egypt.

The results of the study include the following:

    * many children who work would have remained in school had they not been working 14+ hours per week
    * work seems to have a direct and detrimental effect on girls' and boys' schooling
    * girls in Egypt are much more likely than boys to find their schooling affected by their work responsibilities
    * direct interventions to reduce child work would increase school attendance.

In conclusion, the results indicate that the area in Egypt per se has little effect on the schooling or work of boys. This suggests that there is no intrinsic disadvantage due to the area, at least for boys.

However, the situation is different for girls. Girls in metropolitan areas of greater Cairo, Alexandria and Suez cities are more likely to work than girls in non- metropolitan urban areas and rural areas.