BEIJING, Dec 3 (Reuters) - China must end the practice of putting students to work to generate extra income for schools as the system suffers from "chronic abuses", a human rights group said on Monday.

Children are often forced to work long hours doing dangerous or exhausting work at the expense of their education under the "work and study" scheme to help schools supplement meagre budgets, Human Rights Watch said.

"China claims that it is fighting child labour, and repeatedly cites its legal prohibition against the practice as proof," Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

"But the government actively violates its own prohibitions by running large programmes through the school system that use child labour, lack sufficient health and safety guarantees, and exploit loopholes in domestic labour laws," she added. The Education Ministry declined immediate comment.

The group cited several serious cases of abuse, including one in the southern province of Guangdong where 100 children were found making cardboard boxes for 2.4 yuan ($0.32) an hour.

Schools in some poorer inland provinces had sent students to work in factories in the booming coastal regions, or to help gather the crops at harvest time, it added.

"Budgetary pressures at the local level may account for worsening practices, with local governments often slashing education and health budgets when revenues decline," Human Rights Watch said.

"Chinese law mandates that the state provide all children with nine years of free and compulsory education, but in practice most schools, especially in poor areas, cannot function without collecting tuition fees," it added.

While the government has acknowledged problems within the system and does periodically crack down, it has also stifled reporting of the issue in state media and classifies information on child labour as state secrets, the group said.

"China's own laws and international obligations recognise that children shouldn't be working," said Richardson. "But the government allows dangerous work by under-age children if their schools organise it. This really raises doubts about China's commitment to eliminating child labour." ($1=7.406 Yuan) (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; editing by Nick Macfie and roger Crabb)

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