Ensuringaccesstoqualitybasiceducationisc
Ensuring access to quality basic education is critical for removing children from hazardous labor, UNICEF said today.An estimated 246 million children are engaged in child labor, with nearly 70 percent of them (about 171 million) working in hazardous conditions, including working in mines and quarries, working with chemicals and pesticides or with dangerous machinery.
"Children as young as five are forced to spend long hours doing back-breaking labor, often in harsh weather and without access to health care," UNICEFExecutiveDirectorAnn M. Veneman said Friday, in advance of WorldDayAgainstChild Labor on Sunday. "Children mining rock, gold, coal, diamonds and precious metals inAfrica,Asia and SouthAmerica are at constant risk of dying on the job, being injured or becoming chronically ill. " Instead, children should be getting a quality education, which offers their best chance of escaping a life of poverty and hardship, Veneman saiD、
Today, UNICEF is joining the International Labor Organization (ILO) in a specific call to prevent and eliminate child-labor in mines and quarries, considered one of the worst forms of child labor. The ILO estimates that one million children worldwide work in small-scale mining and quarrying, a number that is rising in some parts of the worlD、In addition to facing safety and health risks from lifting heavy loads, children working in rock quarries inhale hazardous dust and particles and use dangerous tools and crushing equipment.
Working with governments, UNICEF is piloting projects throughout the world designed to make it possible for children to be removed from hazardous labor and enrolled in school.
For example:
· InBangladesh, UNICEF helped establish centers that provide schooling, recreational activities and health services for girls who had been chipping bricks with their mothers.
A、key component of the program entails persuading parents to support the education of girls and to recognize the future benefits of training them in such things as technology.
· In Morocco, UNICEF has helped to remove hundreds of children from exploitative work in the ceramics, carpet weaving and leather industries. In an initiative backed by their former employers and the local government, the children are enrolled in NGO-run centers that provide health services, recreation, vocational training and community-based education.
· InBurkina Faso, UNICEF and partners led a project in three gold mining areas to educate families and communities on the dangers of child mining, resulting in the removal of 150 children. Families were offered a package of interventions including income-generating alternatives, skills training and basic education.
UNICEF works in these and other countries affected by child labor to build a protective environment for children—a safety net that is created when governments and all members of society work together to protect children from all forms of exploitation.
At the international level, UNICEF continues to advocate for the ratification and implementation of ILOConvention No. 182, which aims to eliminate the worst forms of child labor. "We must end exploitation of children in the workplace," Veneman saiD、"Getting more children into school is our best defense against child labor today and for the next generation.\
The central topic of the passage is ______.
A、UNICEF’s programB、the problem of child labor
C、quality basic educationD、ILOConvention No. 182