CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION DURING THE VICTORIAN AGE AND TODAYThe cruel experience of childhood yesterday and today

Index

•The education during the Victorian age

•Children exploitation

•The problems of poverty and education today

•Marginalisation and poverty

•Inequality between boys and girls

The education during the Victorian age

The education during the Victorian age• On the other hand, most poor children did not go to school.

• Earlier, Robert Raikes (an English philanthropist) had started a system of education based in churches: the Sunday School by 1831 almost a million and a half of children went to lessons in this way. That was about a quarter of the population at the time.

Robert Raikes

Children exploitation

Children exploitation• A further reason for the use of child labour in factories was that

they were easier to control than adults. Children were adapt to work in factories for the reason that local labour was scarce and the agricultural workers (who came from the countrysides to the city) were unsuitable for industries production. So, children were used to adapt to all situations because they are usually more flexible and malleable.

• To sum up, in the 19th century, children lived in very difficult conditions because they lived near factories and in unhealthy flats or in suburbs with poor hygiene.

• They also had bad nutrition: they used to ate just some bread, pork or milk and not everyday. This fact, caused diseases and infant mortality.

The problems of poverty and education today

Marginalisation and poverty• Factors linked to poverty like unemployment, illness and the

illiteracy of parents, multiply the risk of exploitation of children.• Moreover, many children from disadvantaged backgrounds are

forced to abandon their education for health problems related to malnutrition or in order to work and provide support for the family, as it used to happen to poor children during the Victorian age.

Marginalisation and poverty

• Furthermore, usually in poor countries but not only, children do not have access to education because of inequalities that originate in sex, health and cultural identity (ethnic origin, language, religion, etc.).

• These children find themselves on the margins of the education system and do not benefit from learning that is vital to their intellectual and social development.

Inequality between boys and girls• Today, it is girls who have the least access to education. They make up

more than 54% of the “non schooled” population in the world.

• This problem takes place most frequently in Arab States and Asia and it is principally explained by the cultural and traditional privileged treatment given to males.

• Girls are destined to be associate to the home life, while boys are intended to receive an education, just right during the Victorian age.

• In sub-Saharan Africa, over 12 million girls are at risk of never receiving an education. In Yemen, it is more than 80% of girls who will never have the opportunity to go to school. Even more alarming, certain countries such as Afghanistan or Somalia make no effort to reduce the gap between girls and boys with regard to education.