MANILA, Philippines—The mantra “no child left behind” comes to mind.

The Department of Education and a nongovernmental organization have entered into a partnership to step up efforts to stop child labor and bring the kids back to school.

Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said at least 800,000 Filipino children were toiling as laborers nationwide.

He said the DepEd recently signed a memorandum of agreement with World Vision Development Foundation (WVDF) to bring the children back to school.

“Our children are supposed to be in school and not on the streets or in sweatshops working under horrible conditions,” said Lapus in a statement on Friday.

He said the DepEd and WVDF would jointly raise public awareness and mobilize resources to combat child labor and promote school attendance through the DepEd’s Pag-aaral ng mga Bata Para sa Kinabukasan program.

“Even if poverty is the major cause for such a sorry situation, these children, undeniably, remain the responsibility of the DepEd,” Lapus said.

The WVDF has identified six sectors where child labor is particularly rampant.

WVDF executive director Elnora Avarientos had cited commercial agriculture (sugarcane plantations), domestic work, pyrotechnics making, mining and quarrying, the sex trade and scavenging.

Lapus said the DepEd participation was in the form of policy and technical support.

“The department will provide child laborers access to quality and relevant education programs,” he said.

He said child laborers comprised 16 percent of all children in the country.

The number, he said, was based on a 2007 survey conducted by the National Statistics Office and United Nation Children’s Emergency Fund.