This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English DevelopmentReport.

The International Labor Organization says child labor limitseconomic development. It says educating children instead of forcingthem to work would create huge gains for developing countries. TheInternational Labor Organization is part of the United Nations. Theagency proposes that child labor be substituted with education bytwo-thousand-twenty.

A three-year study by the agency compared the costs against thegains from ending child labor. Researchers found that paying foreducation in developing nations could bring seven times the returnon investment.

The researchers also note the other gains that would come fromremoving the worst forms of child labor. Ending slavery and the saleof children for sex would reduce injuries and sickness.

The International Labor Organization estimates that abouttwo-hundred-fifty-million children are involved in child labor. Ofthese, it says one out of every eight may be working with dangerouschemicals, breathing poisons or selling sex.

The cost to replace child laborwith education is estimated at seven-hundred-sixty-thousand-milliondollars. But the U-N agency says the project should be seen as along-term investment. It says the costs would be higher than returnsmostly during the first fifteen years. For example, poor familieswould have to live at first without the wages earned by theirchildren.

To help balance this problem, the labor agency proposes thatgovernments provide financial help to poor families with school-agechildren. Several nations including Brazil and Mexico already havesupport programs in place. The study says governments would alsoneed to invest in new schools, books, equipment, and teachertraining.

Juan Somavia is the director general of the International LaborOrganization. He says the proposal is not only a good social policy,but also a wise economic plan. He says each additional year ofeducation for an older child adds eleven percent per year to futureearnings.

The labor agency says all parts of the world would gain by endingchild labor. The study estimates that countries in North Africa andthe Middle East would gain more than eight dollars for every onedollar invested. Asian countries would gain more than seven dollarsfor every dollar invested. And Latin American countries would gainover five dollars.

This VOA Special English Development Report was written by JillMoss. This is Robert Cohen.