But questions surfaced whether she deserved the distinction, particularly from her classmates. She was intelligent, but others were more intelligent than her. Most believed she won extra points by being her teacher's pet.
Her classmates recalled the time when their pregnant teacher was about to give birth. She asked the nine-year-old Kristine to stay in her house to help take care of her three-year-old daughter and do household chores.
So she got her extra points for being a "friend teacher" and ended the third grade with honors.
Kristine is only one among the number of pupils in rural areas of Negros Oriental who finish elementary education and receive dubious honors because they are teachers' pets. She is also one of those children who, instead of enjoying their childhood, are forced to do chores after classes or weekends just to pass.
Education officials, however, tend to turn a blind eye to the situation considering it as a normal practice especially in rural areas. Parents, too, who cannot pay for their children's education, welcome a teacher's request to bring their pupils home to help with household work like weeding, sweeping, chopping firewood, baby-sitting as in the case of Kristine, and other menial activities. In return some pupils receive allowances, some get the assurance of passing.
At the heart of the situation is the question whether the practice implies a form of child labor or merely child work. Is it child-friendly?
International agencies like the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the International Labor Organization are active in the campaign to eliminate child labor in Negros Oriental.
The UNICEF campaign is also tied up with the provincial government's child-friendly movement and the anti-child labor drive of the Department of Labor (DOLE).
"Child labor in schools doesn't exist since there are no reports of this kind of child labor," said Jocelyn Gongob, Provincial Planning Officer and provincial coordinator of UNICEF's Country Program for Children (CPC).
"We don't have any reports about child labor in schools. Our reports focus only on basic child labor happenings in fisheries, agriculture and others," said Lilian Montarde of the DOLE district office. "I was shocked to know that there's such thing as child labor in schools," Montarde added.
In Dumaguete City, majority of elementary school principals interviewed deny their teachers bring some of their pupils to their homes, especially during weekends, to help with household chores.
Grace (not her real name) stopped schooling when she was in Grade III at Bayawan East Central School in Bayawan City.
Her mother thought of a way to continue her studies. She asked the child's teacher to support Grace's studies. The teacher grabbed the opportunity. She spent for Grace's schooling in return for the pupil's taking care of her four-year-old daughter.
Though these things have not been given a serious attention, some insist that pupils' working in their teacher's homes during weekends is a form of child labor.
Mitchell P. Duran, Program Officer of the International Labor Organization-International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labor (ILO-IPEC) believes the practice can be considered both as child work and child labor.
"If the parents allow the child to work while schooling, that can be considered as child work. But if the child work causes hazards physically, mentally, emotionally that can be considered as child labor," Duran said.
Child labor defined
The ILO-IPEC Philippine program officer explained that Republic Act No. 9231 defines child labor as any economic understanding that affects negative consequences on the child.
The Ateneo Human Rights Center in a publication titled "A Presentation of Law Protecting Filipino Child Workers" describes child labor in a general sense as the participation of children in a wide variety of work situations, on a more or less regular basis, to earn a livelihood for themselves or for others.
Child labor, in its strict sense, however, does not merely refer to any form of economic activity, but also to a form of economic exploitation damaging to the child.
ILO-IPEC defines child labor as "work situations where children are compelled to work on a regular basis to earn a living for themselves and their families, and as a result are disadvantaged educationally and socially; where children work in conditions that are exploitative and damaging to their health and to their physical and mental development".
To DOLE child labor is the illegal employment of children below the age of fifteen where they are not directly under the sole responsibility of their parents or legal guardians.
DOLE and ILO-IPEC's definition refers to work or economic activity performed by a child that subjects him/her to any forms of exploitation harmful to his/her health and safety or physical, mental or psychological development.
All the definitions focus more on child exploitation in different workplaces and are silent on the situation involving a child asked to do chores in a teacher's house.
Jeremy B. Cafe, schools division coordinator for cultural affairs of Dumaguete City's Department of Education, clarified that pupils doing household chores in their teacher's house during weekends are considered working pupils.
"They are working for their own benefit," Cafe said. "It can't be considered child labors since they (pupils) are not being abused and their work is menial," he said.
He believes pupils work for their teachers because of good reasons. Cafe said he has a working student in his house. The girl, whose name he refused to reveal, has been working in his house, doing household chores since she was in the elementary grade to continue her studies.
"Since I was young, I got several scholarships and now I want to share it with other people by sending them to school," said Cafe.
Is the situation a violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child? Does it conform to the Child and Youth Welfare Act that stipulates, "Every child has the right to full opportunities for safe and wholesome recreation and activities, individual as well as social for the wholesome use of his leisure hours?"
"No, the Law was not violated because their work is just menial. After the work, they can go back to their own homes," Café said. "They work only for a few hours unlike children working over time like in stores, streets, and others," he added.
"If the children work over eight hours, that's the time it will be considered as child labor, thus violating the law", said DOLE's Montarde.
Worst forms
Duran said various pro-active advocacy activities have been conducted to raise the awareness level of local and national stake holders on the time-bound Education Agenda on Child Labor and on the Education for All (EFA) National Action Plan 2015.
The Philippine ILO-IPEC official bared this in last month's launching program of the Negros Oriental Institute for Rural Development, Inc., Negros Oriental State University, and the Department of Education (DepEd) (NIRD-NORSU-DepEd) Literacy Enhancement Program (LEP) at Nangka Elementary School in Bayawan City.
LEP focuses on the elimination of all forms of child labor in Negros Oriental.
The program has targeted Camarines Norte, Bulacan Province, National Capital Region (NCR), Cebu, Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental, Ilo-ilo City, and Davao City.
Duran said ILO prioritized these provinces because of their high incidence of child labor in worst forms that include child domestic work, prostitution, pyrotechnics, deep sea fishing, sugarcane, mining, and quarrying.
A 2001 ILO-IPEC survey in Negros Oriental shows that 1,760 children were working in sugarcane plantations, 132 in deep-sea fishing, and 753 were child domestic workers in Ayungon, Bais City, Basay, Bayawan City, Bindoy, Mabinay, Sta. Catalina, and Siaton.
A baseline survey made by ILO-IPEC in 2004, identified 2,667 child laborers in eight towns in Negros Oriental.
Of the total 66.8 percent or 1,755 girls and boys worked in sugarcane plantation. Some 714 were child domestic workers, and 198 worked in deep-sea fishing, fireworks production, mining and prostitution.
In the Philippines, which is reputed to have the worst poverty incidence among the countries of south east Asia, the phenomenon of child labor is prevalent. In its 1997 survey findings, the National Statistics Office (NSO) revealed that 3.7 million children from the ages 5-17 years participate in the country's labor force.
Since 1989, the incidence of child labor in the country has been steadily increasing at an average rate of 3.8 percent annually on a 10-year period.
Most of the country's working children are exposed to very poor working conditions. Children in agriculture are exposed to heavy loads, chemicals used for fertilizers and pesticides, and to natural elements such as rain, sun and strong winds.
Those in fishing suffer from ruptured eardrums and shark attacks. On board the fishing vessels they have to endure congested, unsanitary conditions and poor food, which often lead to illness.
Factory child workers risk cuts and other injuries from accidents caused by modern machineries and from the lack of protective mechanisms such as gloves and masks. Children in garment factories and in wood industries suffer from back strain, hand cramps, eyestrain, headaches and allergies because of dust. Those in the pyrotechnics manufacturing run the additional risk of injury or death caused by the occidental explosion of their products.
Pupils working in their teachers' homes, whether on child work basis, still are part of the labor force. Working may lead them to stop from schooling.
Child labor not only entails physical repercussions such as stunted growth and diseases, but also certain psycho-social effects.
The work, in which many children are engaged in, distorts their values, leads to loss of dignity and self-confidence, and exposes them to anti-social behavior. Due to long hours of work, their emotional and personal development is retarded and their creative thinking limited.
It also takes its toll on the education of the working children. Out of 70 percent of the country's working children who are still able to go to school, half experience problems of high costs of education (28.7 percents), distance (23.8 percent), and difficulty in catching up with lessons (22.1 percent). Working students complain of low grades (41.4 percent) absenteeism (25.3 percent), and tardiness (26 percent). Working students tend to be chronic dropouts.
The National Survey on Children in 2001 showed that of the 4 million children working with ages 5 to 17, at least 2.4 million of them or 60% are exposed to hazardous working environments.
Causes
Far more than a compilation of statistics, the report is a story of dignity and hope. It tells us that more girls and boys are on the path from workrooms to classrooms out of exploitation toward real opportunity.
Child Labor is rooted in poverty and the lack of economic opportunities. It is often a response by the household to the need to satisfy basic requirements.
Children with unemployed parents do not have social security but must work to help in their families' struggle for survival. The satisfaction of these children's basic needs in life takes precedence over their other needs such as education and recreation.
Families particularly value helpfulness and responsibility-sharing. Philippine culture especially in rural areas consider child work as a phase of socialization where future roles are learned and working to share in the family is seen as training.
The transmission of skills from parents and the evolution of proper attitudes to work are some of the considered social contributions of child labor.
Another reason why children work is the failure of the education system. Many parents prefer to send their children out to work rather than to school, either because there is no school within a reasonable distance of the family home or because they cannot see what use schooling would be to them. Schooling has little credibility for many families since it does not promote economic improvement.
Another major factor in the increase in the number of working children is the demand for child workers. Employers know all too well the advantages of employing children. They represent a docile work force, which could be hired and replaced at a fraction of adult wages. They do not join labor unions and very seldom complain.
Above all, employers who hire children gain a competitive advantage in both national and international markets due to the low wages they pay children.
Whether the situation of pupils working in their teacher's house during weekends is a child work or child labor, still the reasons behind its existence and tolerance must be studied. (NORSU Main Campus I Senior Mass Communication students Ma. Eden Joy A. Albaño, Granjelyn A. Balucan, and Anna Melody E. De Vera)
(October 8, 2006 issue) Write letter to the editor. Click here. Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here.
