Innovación y dosis en la implementación del programa Edúcame Primero Perú para la reducción del trabajo infantil

Résumé

Child labor is a global problem that requires political, economic and educational actions to face it. The International Labor Organization (ILO) maintains agreements and strategies to eradicate it before 2030. On the other hand, in Peru there are movements of minor workers who defend their right to employment, in decent conditions. Research on the psychosocial and educational consequences of work for children positions the majority of the international community in the goal of improving educational quality and eradicating child labor. In Lima, the number of working children is associated with social and economic reasons such as poverty, the growth of urban centers, internal displacement, the low quality of schools and the families and educators’ conceptions about child labor. Edúcame Primero Perú is a psychoeducational intervention program implemented in two districts located in the suburbs of Lima, Villa El Salvador and Jicamarca. In this doctoral thesis we analyze the implementation of the program and we describe the results of the work with 151 minor participants, their families and their teachers, during 10 months of intervention. The information of minors and their community and educational context is obtained by the development of prevention activities, promotion of social skills, self-efficacy, self-esteem and academic performance. Spaces to Grow was the main strategy of the program and it was developed in the schools, in the extra-curricular schedule, to promote the distance of the minors from the work activities. In addition, facilitators of the program used community dynamization strategies, dissemination of the program and promotion of leadership through home visits, schools for families, training activities and guidance to participating minor teachers and legal tutors. In this doctoral thesis we analyze the involvement of Edúcame Primero Perú in a context of risk of child labor. During the implementation of the program, qualitative and quantitative information is collected to develop three successive investigations: On the first paper, we measured the interrelation of the factors that influence the improvement of the implementation of the program. It was observed that the increase of minor’s attendance and participation was linked to the strategies developed by the facilitators related to the organizational capacities and the adjustment to the context, the increase of the intensity of the implementation and the promotion of families’, teachers’ and children’s involvement. The program was institutionalized in the school and it became a community resource. On the second paper, we analyzed the impact of Edúcame Primero Perú in the prevention of child labor and we highlighted that the program strategies allow minors and families to be in the early stages of readiness for change. There was an increase in self-esteem in the academic field and there was a decrease in children’s self-assessment of social skills and social self-efficacy. Families take notice of the importance of education and they evaluated positively the influence of the program. Children become aware of their own cognitive skills related to projection into the future and their own process of decision making for success. On the third paper, we described the convergence in the evaluation of academic performance, social skills and child labor from three types of informants (minors, families and teachers). We observed higher levels of convergence in the most observable behaviors such as aggressiveness. It was related with lower social competence by teachers and students. Teachers are more aware of the consequences of child labor and they appreciate oral communication. Families are aware of the risk context where they live and they value more the skills to cope with problematic situations. Children are enriched by learning in the educational context and they are mediators between family and school, which is the key to the prevention of child labor.