CODE 18 - 77
CONFIDENTIAL
Reference....
Mr My %%
LA 393/16
6
Might
We please spent
David
yoon
Mr Milton, HKGD
COMPULSORY EDUCATION AND THE ILLEGAL EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN
1.
I am returning the papers which Mr Duffy sent to Mr Hurst on 22 July concerning joinder of charges of illegally employing children and the extension of free, compulsory education to all children up to the age of fifteen.
2. Mr Hurst made some minor amendments to the draft submission and the draft letter before going on leave for two weeks from
5 August, and agreed to recommend that the following three sentences should be inserted in paragraph 2 of the draft letter at the point marked A.
3.
"It is inevitable, however, that the operation of a
means test to determine eligibility for and the amount of subsidy will deter some parents from permitting their children to stay on at school after the age of 12. For families in straitened circumstances there may well be a temptation to forgo education in favour of clandestine employment and earnings. This temptation could only be overcome if the law made attendance at school compulsory at least up to the minimum permissible age of employment.
We do not think that the point about joinder of charges should be pursued any further but we should hope to have periodically figures for convictions of employers illegally employing children, for the numbers of children so employed, and for the level of fines.
Michael Walsh.
8 August 1977
M T Walsh
Deputy Overseas Labour Adviser
CONFIDENTIAL