Read the passage carefully and answer the questions on it.
Work can be an essential part of children’s education and a means of transmitting vital skills from parent to offspring. In some countries, children are often involved in workshops and small-scale services, and gradually become full-fledged workers later in life. In other countries, teenagers ‘work a few hours a week to earn pocket money. Such work is beneficial as it enhances a child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development without interfering with his schooling, recreation and rest.
Child labor, on the other hand, is about children who work long hours for low wages, often under conditions harmful to their health. This type of work is destructive and exploitative. Child labor takes different forms. By and large, most child workers are in domestic service. Domestic service need not be hazardous, but it often is. Children in domestic service are poorly paid or not paid at all. Their masters set the terms and conditions. of their work entirely to their whim. They are deprived of affection, schooling, play and social activity. They are also vulnerable to physical abuse.
Poverty is the most powerful force driving children into hazardous labor. For poor families, the small contribution of a child’s income at home can make the difference between hunger and survival. The parents of child workers are often unemployed or underemployed. They are desperate for a secure income. In developing countries, for example, classrooms do not have seats, half of the students have no textbooks and half of the classrooms have no blackboards. It is not surprising that many children who attend such schools abandon schooling for work.
Child labor is aggravated by a modern society that is preoccupied with the demand for low-priced products. Few people seem to care that these may have been produced by millions of anonymous, exploited children. The effects of child labor on the psychological, emotional and intellectual growth of the victims are grave. Such children are deprived of affection. Beatings, insults and punishment by being deprived of food are very common.
Ultimately, most child laborers are condemned to lifelong poverty, misery, sickness and illiteracy.
Questions:
a. identify two types of work that are beneficial to children.
b. According to the passage, what is child labor?
C. Give two causes of child labor.
d. In one word, describe the effect of child labor on the child.
e. According to the passage, why do children drop out of school?
f..Who work long hours for low wages…? (i) What, is the grammatical name given to this expression as it is used in the passage? (ii) What is its function?
g ..most child laborers are condemned to lifelong poverty… What is the meaning of this expression?
h. For each of the following words, find another word or phrase which means the same and which can replace it as it is used in the passage: (i) transmitting: (ii) enhances; (iii) vulnerable; (iv) preoccupied; (v) anonymous; (vi) grave.
