Gradually, structural adjustment programmes have been modified in order to mitigate their effects on the vulnerable. In new agreements between governments and the international financial institutions, public expenditure on primary education and other basic social services is increasingly being protected. National policies and priorities also contribute to the problem. In the countries experiencing economic hardship in the last decade, per capita spending on education has declined significantly. In all regions, spending per student for higher education fell during the 1980s, and in Africa and Latin America, spending per pupil also fell for primary education.
Education is underfunded and in decline.
But the school system in most developing countries is blighted by more than just a lack of resources. It is too often rigid and uninspiring in approach, with a curriculum that is irrelevant to and remote from children s lives. It has to be reborn as part of the solution. Tradition and entrenched social patterns also play a part in propelling children into hazardous labour. The harder and more hazardous jobs become, the more likely they are to be considered the province of the poor and disadvantaged, the lower classes and ethnic minorities.