The International Labour Organisation (ILO), said despite global progress in many areas, it was unacceptable that so many children continued to work for their survival and that of their families.
The organization said for too many children, particularly children of poor families across the world, the right to education remained an abstract concept, far from the reality of daily life.
These are contained in a message by Juan Somavia, the Director-General of ILO, on the occasion of the World Day against Child Labour that would be observed globally tomorrow, released to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Wednesday.
She said more than 70 million primary school aged children were not enrolled in school and many of these and other out of school children started working at an early age, often well below the minimum age of employment.
The ILO Director-General said; "On this World Day against Child Labour the focus is on: Education - the right response to child labour," adding that, when a family had to make a choice between sending either a boy or girl to school, it was often the girl who was neglected.
Somavia said, "Our challenge is to offer hope to the child labourers of the world by making their right a reality, ensuring that they have quality education and training, which can lead them towards a future of decent work.
She explained that because this was essential to break the cycle of child labour and poverty it was a sound investment for individuals and society.
Somavia said the United Nations Millennium Development Goals had set targets for achieving universal primary education and eliminating gender disparity in education and achieving these goals also meant tackling child labour.
She expressed gratitude that in recent years, a number of countries had introduced innovative initiatives linking efforts to eradicate poverty with the extension of children's access to education.
Somavia, however, cautioned; " we also continue to see the vulnerability of poor families to economic shocks. The global food crisis threatens to generate further pressures which could lead to more children dropping out of school and into work."
She stated that the toll of HIV/AIDS and natural disasters also heightened vulnerability to child labour and asked all and sundry to be clear that fighting child labour needed action from many fronts.
Somavia said; "From the perspective of the ILO, it means employment policies to ensure that parents have jobs that allow families to enjoy a decent life; social protection that permits families to withstand and move beyond poverty and crisis; and the enjoyment of rights at work that drive empowerment and transformation."
She said fighting child labour was part of an integrated agenda for decent work but policies beyond the world of work must also converge around this goal.
Somavia reminded all stakeholders in the fight against child labour that, "On this World Day against Child Labour, as we focus on the educational dimension - let us pledge to work together for education for all children at least to the minimum age of employment, education policies that reach out to child labourers and other excluded groups, properly resourced quality education and skills training, education for all children and decent work for adults."
She urged individuals to lend their voices and action to the worldwide movement against child labour.