Child labour in Mexico | Talk to Al Jazeera (In The Field)

“Education for everyone” has been a popular slogan since the Mexican revolution over 100 years ago.

But according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, eight out of 100 Mexican children who enroll in elementary school, do not show up for classes.

While barely 50 complete middle school, 20 graduate from high school, 13 get a bachelor’s degree, and only two become graduate students.

A study released by UNESCO last year says the children who don’t attend school are mostly working. The report reveals that at least 21 percent of all Mexican youth between the ages of seven and 14 drop out of school – that’s around 651,000 children.

That means Mexico has one of the largest child labor forces in Latin America, second only to Colombia.

Many of Mexico’s youths who don’t attend school work in plantations.

Talk to Al Jazeera travelled to the coastal state of Veracruz to meet some Mexicans who have traded classrooms and pencils for sugar cane fields and machetes.

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