This book reflects the outcome of a long-term involvement in issues of child labour non-formal
education and formal school enrolment. It documents research findings and practical
experiences on social economic and cultural causes of child labour and various pragmatic and
theory-guided methods as well as legal instruments to combat child labour. The tenet that
quality schooling prevents child labour implies a shift in child labour monitoring from a
conventional controlling approach at workplaces to a community based enabling approach at
schools. Child labour and school enrolment are not isolated phenomena that can be strategically
resolved under controlled conditions in the human lifeworld but are rather positioned
reflected and acted upon in the context of a handed down and existing system. Universal human
rights instruments including educational rights offer directives to resolve problematic
settings that prevailed over time however they require an unequivocal commitment which is
not always the case in the ground reality of pluralistic stakeholders divided by conflicting
group interests.
