CHILD LABOUR FROM SCHOOL COOPERATIVES IN THE PORO REGION: A CASE STUDY OF SCHOOL COOPERATIVES IN SINEMATIALY (CÔTE D'IVOIRE)

For more than two decades, we have believed that coffee and cocoa plantations were considered as the best places for children labour in rural work. However, the schools which are supposed to educate them have become places where children labour is manifested through school cooperatives. In fact, the older children whose ages range from 10 to 15 are employed on the cashew and cotton plantations on behalf of these cooperatives which must teach them the spirit of cooperation and associative life. School cooperatives in Sinematialy (northern Côte d'Ivoire) are the examples. Thus, the present study aims to understand the social logics underlying the attitude of the various actors involved in this phenomenon of child labour through school cooperatives, in spite of the national context of fight against child labour. On the methodological level, the study is based on a qualitative approach including interviews with the different categories of actors involved.