Impacto de trabajo infantil en el rendimiento escolar de adolescentes en poblaciones rurales: Estudio de caso

Introduction. In the millenium development goals, the importance of achieving full and productive employment is mentioned, plus decent jobs for everyone including women and young people. But the necessity of involving the young people in the family's production chain in the Colombian rural areas is a disincentive that causes school dropouts among students from rural areas and, in consequence, they do not finish the study programs the Colombian ministry of education established for the citizens. Objective. Prove the negative effect of child labor on the academic performance of the adolescents involved in the family's production chain in rural communities, and remark the student's perception of the added value provided by education. Materials and methods. To do so, a sample of students from a rural school in which students are involved in their families' production chains was observed by means of a participatory methodological design that included the analysis of their academic results in several periods of time. The comparison of these results showed a constant low performance in some students dedicated to child labor, and they became the study sample after their parents gave their consent. The following was made with a field diary and the facts observed were complemented with interviews to the young people in the sample. In school meetings the parents or tutors of the students intervened as well, and they were surveyed with the sole purpose of knowing their opinion about the importance of their children's education. Results. Concerning the students, the results show discouragement and sloth in some of the students surveyed, and this fact gets more complicated because in many families there is no discipline in order to formulate a life project that generates expectations for the future, thus having education as a possibility to get over vulnerability and have new options based on knowledge. As for the parents, they effectively acknowledge that the manpower their children are is necessary for the families' economies. Conclusion. The national government must apply strategies to support these communities and benefit their formative processes.