ABSTRACT
This study has looked at conditions in some of the poorest countries of the world, countries with low gross national products and low human development indicators. Conditions of the children in these countries are a particular matter of concern and demand increased public attention and policy intervention. The commitment underlying the research was clearly that children, wherever in the world they happen to live, should not be exploited as child labourers and should have full-time access to well-functioning schools. It is what Basu and Van (1998, 422) have referred to as an acquired morality in society. With the acceptance of the Child Rights Convention by the UN in 1989 and its ratifi cation by practically all governments in the world, that morality has been acquired by all nations and cultures in the world. It is therefore safe to accept that that childhood has a universal meaning, at least if the concept is unpacked from its environmentspecifi c behavioural aspects.
