In my neighbourhood I see the same kids selling things on the streets (at least 6 or 7 faces) since schools were closed. None of them could be more than 12. How is someone going to explain to them that they need to go back to school and get an education, when they have had a taste of making enough money to buy some candy and keep their families fed by not going, without some kind of here-and-now incentive? Not to mention escaping from a likely depressing home reality.
Agree it is important to give this issue a double-take and think outside the paradigm to make disadvantaged kids present lives better (in the context of a poor state with limited resources or controls) while still giving them opportunities through education for a better future. The key is to strike a balance - for example, when I was 12 I would ride my bike around the block before school and deliver newspapers to earn my spending money (for which I was taxed at a youth rate)
www.opendemocracy.net
