Child Labor Industrial Revolution
Child labor is a complex problem that demands a range of solutions. There is no better way to prevent child labor than to make education compulsory. The west understood this a long time ago. Laws were enacted very early to secure continued education for working children and now they have gone a step forward and required completion of at least the preliminary education of the child before he or she starts work.
Martin Luther as back far 1524 sent a letter to German Municipalities insisting it was their duty to provide schools, and the duty of parents to educate their children. In Sweden, a royal decree in 1723 instructed parents and guardians to diligently see to it that their children applied themselves to book reading. In Europe, one country after another; Scotland, Prussia (1817), Austria (1869), France, United Kingdom (1880), and Italy made education compulsory. In 1872, Japan became the first non-Western country to make elementary school education compulsory with the declaration by the Meiji Govt.
