Some children have to work almost full-time just in order to earn enough money to attend school. Their schooling depends on their work, but the work may be so long and hard that the children are too tired to learn when in class. But if they stop working they can not go to school. In 1993 primary education was declared compulsory for the whole of Bangladesh. School attendance improved, but drop out rates are very high.
Girls are less likely to attend or remain in school than boys.
Like poverty itself, the prohibitive costs of education that keep children out of school and increase the likelihood of them remaining in hazardous work, must be seen as a consequence of faulty policies and priorities. Many countries manage to find sufficient resources for disproportionate military spending . In the context of the Global March Against Child Labour, organisations plead for a doubling of development aid for basic education in developing countries, and to combine this with programmes to integrate working children in school. Ultimately, child labour can not be eliminated from Bangladesh unless poverty is conquered. The Global March Against Child Labour urges governments to give absolute priority to the immediate elimination of extreme forms and, in the long run, to address the root causes of child labour.