Intersections of school, work, and learning: children in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam

This chapter synthesizes recent research from Young Lives, a longitudinal study of children growing up in poverty in four countries, Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam. The chapter focuses on spatial and temporal aspects of learning and working. Using case studies from qualitative research as well as survey data, it describes first the extent and forms of work children undertake and how these change over time, second, how poverty influences children’s work activities, and third, what skills children learn through work. The fourth section explores the intersections of school and work. The chapter also draws on research findings from other studies in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam, and reflects on the commonalities and differences between the countries to attempt to deepen understandings of how social change and processes of modernization affect children’s daily lives. The chapter argues three central premises: first, that in differing parts of the world, children are involved in work to a significant extent, depending on context; second, that this is changing rapidly as school systems expand, which means that children’s time use is contested; and third, while work may conflict with school, it has some intrinsic value in terms of skill formation, and may enable (some) children to go to school.