Importance of education in socio-economic development of countries and in particular developing ones cannot be overemphasized. However, a major concern that has emerged over the last decade has been the need to ensure that children are given the requisite opportunity to access basic education in their respective communities. Children constitute the future human capital of the society and therefore have potential to exert significant impact on the growth and development of the economy, children’s full participation in basic education is a sine qua non for societal progress (SACKEY, 2007). A deterrent to this is child labour which is one of the most pervasive development problems of poor as well as developing countries. It impact on the physical, …show more content…
Moreover, considering the fact that child work can harm schooling outcomes it is imperative to find out the effect of child labour on school attainment of children in Northeast Nigeria.
There have been studies on child labour (BADMUS and AKINYOSOYE 2008, OKPUKPARA et al, 2006) and school attainment and KHANAM and ROSS 2005. Despite this, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, studies such as BADMUS (2008), OKPUKPARA ET AL, (2006), OKPUKPARA AND ODURUKWE (2003), ADEKOLA ET AL,(2005) studied child labour in Nigeria but did not examine school attainment using the Grade-for-Age index as measure of school attainment. In addition, this study utilized primary (cross-sectional) data containing information specific to the particular research objectives and collected from respondents in Northeastern Nigeria unlike ADEKOLA ET AL, 2005, LAWAL AND AKINTAYO (2007) AND AGBONLAHOR ET AL (2007) which used primary data but studied child labour in Southwestern Nigeria (SAGE, 2008). Furthermore, the paper examined the current child labour and schooling attainment situation in the study area it is more recent than previous studies (such as Badmus, 2008; Aliyu, 2007; Olaniyan, 2011) carried out in Nigeria which included Northern