Recession pulls children out of Argentina's classrooms

It's 7 p.m. on a Friday in the middle-class Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo, and the cafes are filling up with people just starting their weekend.

But sitting on the sidewalk nearby, rummaging through a large garbage bag, 14-year-old Theo is topping off a full day at school with still more work. Theo is one of the city's army of cartoneros, people who sort through bags of trash looking for recyclable paper that they can sell to factories. His daily take for up to eight hours of labor: $2 to $3.

Throughout Argentina, a country of 36 million people, 1.5 million children are working - six times the number of just eight years ago, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Argentina's Ministry of Education.

Argentina historically has led South America in school-enrollment rates and still has the top-ranked education systemon the continent, according to the United Nations Development Program. But that achievement is at risk. Five years of recession have left 1 in 5 Argentines out of work and 60 percent of the population living in poverty. To help their families survive, children like Theo have been driven into the workforce in unprecedented numbers.

Some organizations are reporting that children who are forced to work are falling behind in class, and more and more children are dropping out altogether. UNICEF, which has begun to address the growing problem, says that unless the trend is stopped, this generation will be restricted to the lowest paying jobs, leaving them trapped in a cycle of poverty.

Already, UNICEF estimates that 40 percent of Argentine children who work end up abandoning school. Anyone listening to Theo will understand why.

His day starts with school at 8 a.m. His family wants him to attend in part because the government ensures he receives a hot meal there. Classes finish at 2 p.m., but instead of homework or playing football with friends, Theo then catches one of several special trains provided by the train companies to carry cartoneros from the slum on the edge of Greater Buenos Aires into the center of town.

"Then I spend the evening collecting rubbish, which we drop off at the recycler before catching a train back home after 10 p.m.," he says. "It makes it hard to concentrate the next day at school, as I'm always worn out."

Argentina's crisis has resulted in a plethora of social programs, coordinated by UNICEF and various government ministries, which are designed to keep children in school and out of work. The programs seek to provide aid directly to families most in need. Assistance for parents is frequently dependent on their children continuing to attend school.

But according to Jorge Rivera, UNICEF's representative in Argentina, these programs are not working. "Money is arriving late, and those people who need help the most are receiving nothing at all," he says.

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