By Dr Michelina Andreucci

IN Britain, the campaign against child labour culminated in two important legislations; the Factory Act of 1833 prohibited the employment of children younger than nine years and limited the hours of work for children between nine and 13 years.
The Mines Act of 1842 raised the starting age of colliery mine workers to as young as 10-years of age.
Although these legislations aimed to regulate and reduce child labour, no attempts were made to outlaw it completely.
Many children continued to work owing to loopholes in laws and a lack of enforcement.
In fact, Queen Victoria’s consort, Prince Albert, allegedly declared that the working man’s children were ‘part of his productive power’; an indispensable source of a family’s income!
Although the Factory Act, introduced in 1878, prohibited children under 10 years to work in any trade, by 1891, the British Government neglected to raise the minimum age for part-time factory workers from 10 to 11 years, even though they had undertaken in 1890 to raise it to 12 years.
Education reform also proceeded at a very slow pace in England.
A Royal Commission, early in the 1860s, on Popular Education declared that compulsory schooling for all children was ‘neither obtainable nor desirable’.
If the child’s wages were crucial to the family’s economy, ‘it is far better that it should go to work at the earliest age at which it can bear the physical exertion than that it should remain at school’.
Many believed domestic skills and basic literacy were all they needed to learn; most girls were precluded from school.
The Education Act of 1880 made schooling compulsory for children up to the age of 10 and improved child welfare; it did little to improve the children’s working conditions.
Subsequent amendments raised the school-leaving age to 12 years or before, if the student reached the required standards in reading, writing and arithmetic.
Towards the end of Queen Victoria’s reign, as late as 1891, in England and Wales, over 100 000 girls between the ages of 10 and 14 still worked as domestic servants for the British upper classes.
Concurrently, The Missionary Society, founded in 1795, re-named The London Missionary Society, declared as part of their pulpit politics: “It was to be a fundamental principle of The Missionary Society that its design is not to send Presbyterianism, Independency, Episcopacy, or any other form of Church Order and Government, …but the Glorious Gospel of the blessed God to the heathen…”
British missionaries such as John Moffat (who arrived in South Africa in 1917), David Livingstone, Charles Helm and their ilk were sent forth to the ‘dark continent’ to save what they called the African ‘savage’!
Colonial education philosophy, content, structure and administration for Africans began in the 20th Century with the enactment of the Native Education Ordinance of 1907 and continued until Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980.
For colonial administrators, African education was a thorny issue.
Fearing if they were too educated they would compete with whites and challenge their rule, any progressive recommendations that were made were thus never implemented.
Mission schools played a major role in the development of African education during the first 40 years of the colonial period.
By 1929, there were fewer than 100 000 pupils; in 1956, after a change of Government and policies, enrollment in primary education increased to 164 000 pupils.
Goromonzi Secondary School in Goromonzi was the first secondary school built for Africans.
After the opening of Goromonzi Secondary School, other missionary organisations opened their own secondary schools.
By 1949, only about 600 pupils had enrollment.
Prior to the opening of Goromonzi Secondary School, most Africans acquired secondary and higher education from the mine schools in South Africa or overseas, after which the only job opportunities for the graduates was to be a teacher or a clergyman.
At independence in 1980, under the Ministry of Education, the racially segregated educational facilities maintained by the former Rhodesian regime was changed to the multi-racial education system of today.
Education for children between the ages of six and 13 was made compulsory for a minimum seven years.
Student enrollment for the six-year secondary school education was approximately 38 percent.
Primary school enrollment by 2003 was estimated at about 80 percent.
An estimated 80,6 percent of all pupils completed their primary education.
As of 2003, Government’s public expenditure on education was estimated at 4,7 percent of the Gross Domestic Product.
The rapid increase in enrollment in primary and secondary schools after independence in 1980 created an unprecedented demand for teachers.
Prior to Government’s intervention, the teacher-pupil ratio at the beginning of 1981 was 1:76.
With Government intervention, enrollment of trainee primary school teachers at teacher-training colleges rose from 2 659 in 1981 to 5 199 in 1985.
The corresponding figures for secondary school teacher trainees were 1 008 and
4 305.
In 2003, the pupil-to-teacher ratio for primary schools was approximately 39:1 while the ratio for secondary schools was about 22:1.
Although this ratio remains high, it is an indication of the importance Zimbabweans attach to their children’s education.
By 1984, there were a total of 14 175 teachers.
In 2003, private schools accounted for about 86,9 percent of primary school enrollment and 71,3 percent of secondary enrollment.
The University of Zimbabwe and other universities, provide higher education to both male and female students.
The Government also developed a strong vocational school and apprenticeship system.
In 2003, an estimated four percent enrolled in tertiary education programmes.
Prior to colonisation, traditional work practices based on the principles of hunhu/ubuntu, known as ‘humwe/majangano’, fostered social cohesion in the community, especially during agro-production.
Besides being trained into the traditions of crop production, ceremonies and customs, Zimbabwean African children also learned about their extended families by interacting with relatives and elders.
Notions relating to respect, especially for elders and other members of society were mainly cultivated during these gatherings.
During this time, elders were at liberty to send children, irrespective of who the parents were, on errands.
Any child who showed signs of unwillingness upon being sent by an elder was instantly rebuked.
Children were taught to respect all elders as if they were their own parents.
This form of child labour was a far cry to the child labour children experienced in Europe!
Dr Michelina Andreucci is a Zimbabwean-Italian researcher, industrial design consultant lecturer and specialist hospitality interior decorator. She is a published author in her field.
For views and comments, email: linamanucci@gmail.com