back_to_school/2007/in focus/news room

10 September 2007

Back to School

TI Working Paper: Corruption in Education
Corruption in Education
Anti-Corruption Education
New Programme in Africa
Selected Readings
Links
Media

Education is central to preventing corruption. But when the education system itself is corrupt, keeping enrolment low and drop-out rates high, can children ever learn the values that must underlie a transparent and accountable society? When money counts more than knowledge in the quest for a diploma, studying and learning lose their purpose. Ethical values are transmitted to children through their environment and their education.

Transparency International believes that if the fight against corruption is to be successful, youth must grow up believing that their talent, effort and merit count more than favouritism, manipulation and bribery. In addition, children need to be shielded from corruption. This why TI addresses both sides of the issue in its work: educating children about how to identify and tackle corruption, as well as putting measures in place to stop corruption in the classroom.

Download the working paper 4/2007: Corruption in the Education Sector.

Corruption in Education

Corruption in education concerns more than just students, faculty and staff. It can have a serious impact on a country’s economic and political future as well. TI chapters around the world are working to address corruption in education, both by evaluating its scope and by providing tools and measures to prevent it.

TI Kenya
Corruption in teacher management is a serious concern in many countries. In Kenya, the Teachers Service Commission, the government agency responsible for hiring and posting teachers, is the single largest employer, and corruption within its ranks has national implications.

Since 2002, this commission has featured prominently in TI Kenya’s annual Kenya Bribery Index, together with the Ministry of Education, Public Universities, Public Colleges and Public Schools.
TI Kenya’s Integrity Study on the Teacher Service Commission (2006) investigates perceptions and actual levels of corruption in the commission. It can be downloaded at http://www.tikenya.org/viewdocument.asp?ID=230. For more information, please contact Lisa Karanja at transparency@tikenya.org.

Proética
Corruption in teacher management is also rampant in Peru. In 2006 and 2007, TI’s chapter in Peru, Proética, together with the national ombudsman of Peru, led the campaign Education Without Corruption, which included inviting citizens to report corruption cases in six regions of the country.

Of the many complaints they received, the large majority referred to teacher absence and to irregularities in teacher appointment. The report Con corrupción no hay educación (2007) can be downloaded here, or for more information write to Samuel Rotta at srotta@proetica.org.pe.

Poder Ciudadano
Like other sectors, public procurement for educational goods and infrastructure is particularly vulnerable to corruption. TI’s chapter in Argentina, Poder Ciudadano has been helping to increase transparency in large public textbook contracts, and to build trust in the fairness of public procurement processes for many years.

Poder Ciudadano most recently monitored the purchase of 1.6 million textbooks by the Buenos Aires General Directorate of Culture and Education. A report can be found here.
For more information, please contact Federico Arenoso at farenoso@poderciudadano.org.

Transparencia Mexicana
Transparencia Mexicana (TM) also works in the procurement area. In 2005, TM performed a diagnosis of the integrity in advertisement, selection and acquisition processes for free text books in public secondary schools in collaboration with the Mexican Publishers Association and federal authorities.

TM is currently participating in monitoring the selection process for public high school directors to assure that it is carried out with strict attachment to the norms and objectives set out in the official announcement, procedures manual and other institutional documents. A special report on education, published in 2003, is available at www.tm.org.mx.
For more information, write to Michelle del Campo at info@tm.org.mx.

Center for Regional Development /TI Armenia
TI Armenia works to improve transparency and accountability in secondary schools in the Armenian Shirak Marz province. In 2003 and 2004, the chapter undertook an expenditure tracking and performance monitoring project aimed at diagnosing the extent of corruption in schools. The report can be downloaded here.

Since 2004, TI Armenia monitors donor assistance programmes for secondary schools in the same province, using participatory methods aimed at increasing social accountability. The report can be found here.

In 2005, CLR / TI Armenia worked with other NGOs in participatory monitoring of secondary schools, using community score cards and other monitoring techniques. A report is available here.
For more information, please contact Varuzhan Hoktanyan at varuzh@transparency.am.

TI Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, most reported corruption cases occur in the education sector, along with the police, health and private sector, according to the 2005 Corruption Database Report, released by TI-Bangladesh last year. In half of the reported cases of corruption in education, no action was found to be taken.
TI Bangladesh promotes social accountability in education through its work with Committees of Concerned Citizens throughout the country, and provides citizen feedback on the quality of education through Citizen Report Cards. More information can be found at www.ti-bangladesh.org. For information, please contact: info@ti-bangladesh.org.

TI Bosnia and Herzegovina
Corruption in higher education is a serious threat to a country’s economic and political future.

Surveys carried out by TI Bosnia Herzegovina in 2004 and 2005 found high levels of acceptance of corruption by university students.
The report Corruption in Education and the Role of Education in Combating Corruption can be downloaded here.

TI Georgia
Various reforms have taken place in recent years to combat corruption in university entrance exams. TI Georgia has monitored the newly introduced central national exams in 2006.
The report Monitoring the 2006 Unified National Exams in Georgia can be downloaded here.
TI Georgia also works in civic education. For more information, please contact Tamuna Karosadnize at info@transparency.ge.

Colombia
Transparency Colombia prepares an annual Transparency Index that measures corruption risks in institutions such as the national Education Ministry, public Universities, and regional education departments. The index evaluates vulnerability in terms of: management visibility, the fulfilment of standards and rules and, finally, the level of disciplinary sanction of each one of them. More information can be found here, or write to María Ximena Pineda Lara at comunicaciones@transparenciacolombia.org.co.

Anti-Corruption Education

Education shapes attitudes and builds skills that help future citizens to reject corruption. TI considers anti-corruption education, from ethics to civic education, to be a key element of any anti-corruption strategy. TI chapters work with schools and universities to raise awareness among young people on the effects of corruption, and to equip them with the skills and knowledge to reject it. Here are some examples:

Peru
Proética, TI’s chapter in Peru, trains teachers in civic education for children and young adults. In 2005, a teacher manual Vigilancia Juvenil de la Gestión Pública was developed that includes modules on public participation, citizenship, corruption and other issues. The manual can be accessed at www.proetica.org.pe/Descargas/PDF/manual.pdf. For more information, please write to Samuel Rotta at srotta@proetica.org.pe.

Morocco
TI Morocco works at schools and universities to sensitise young people about the effects of corruption and has developed teaching materials for secondary schools in French and Arabic. Annual anti-corruption days provide a format for media campaigns and outreach to various education institutions. The programme “université de la transparence” is a cooperation between civil society and universities. Information can be found at http://www.transparencymaroc.org, or write to transparency@menara.ma.

Vanuatu
TI Vanuatu produced a book on civic education for grade school years seven and eight of Vanuatu’s secondary schools that will be used in the regular civic education curriculum. For information, please contact Blandine Boulekone at tiv@vanuatu.com.vu.

Venezuela

TI Venezuela has developed a curriculum for school children between the ages of 10 and 15. The course "Integridad Escolar, creciendo como ciudadanos," consists of 12 sessions that address issues of integrity, transparency and corruption. The manual can be downloaded here. For more information, please contact Dayana Luz García at prensa@transparencia.org.ve.

Chile
Chile Transparente also works with primary schools in its values and citizenship education programme. Various didactical materials have been produced and teachers have been trained during the pilot phase of the project. For more information, please go here, or contact Jonny Heiss at chiletransparente@chiletransparente.cl.

Colombia
Cátedra Transparencia por Colombia is a co-operation of TI’s chapter in Colombia with 19 Colombian universities. It provides pedagogical tools and processes to complement university curricula and strategies in the area of ethics education for students. Since the inception of the programme in 2001, 10,000 students have participated in the programme’s activities. More information can be found here, or write to María Ximena Pineda Lara at comunicaciones@transparenciacolombia.org.co.

Palestine
AMAN, the TI chapter in Palestine, has been running an Anti-Corruption Training programme for Palestinian youths since 2006. Included in this programme is an interactive, educational play that was performed on various occasions, and summer camps for children, which were run by university student volunteers. Also, a virtual library was created so that the public can access books, articles and other materials on corruption in the Arabic language, and various educational materials were developed for use at schools. AMAN also developed an university course on corruption in cooperation with Birzeit University, and runs a training programme for high school teachers. More information on the Anti-Corruption Training programme can be found here.

For more information, please contact Frosse Dabit at fdabit@aman-palestine.org.

Romania
Transparency International Romania is working both with high schools and universities. Since 2006, a model "integrity system" for the secondary schools and a guide to implementing such a system has been developed, based on TI Romania's research on the experiences of students, teachers, administrators and parents with corruption. The guide has been used in various trainings for students, teachers, administrators, and parents in the pilot program. It is available at http://www.transparency.org.ro/. For information, please contact Matt Loftis at matt@transparency.org.ro.

Bosnia
TI Bosnia Herzegovina currently trains teachers within the framework of the programme "Educating Future Leaders: Good Governance in Schools". The programme consists of a six month course on civics, ethics and democracy and is presented in high schools and regional seminars throughout the country, and a national workshop. To date, 6,000 students from 40 institutions across four provinces have been trained. For information, please write to Danijela Kolundzija at dkolundzija@ti-bih.org.

Moldova
TI Moldova conducts workshops for university students, professors and staff on the economic consequences and the threats of corruption in education. It also organises youth camps, essay contests and cultural events around the topic of corruption in education, and runs radio spots in a youth radio. Information can be found at http://www.transparency.md/about.htm, or write to Lilia Carasciuc at office@transparency.md.

Italy
TI Italy runs a Global Programme of Ethics Education since many years. Seminars are organised for high school students, teachers and headmasters alike. The project, ethics education through sport, teaches youth to respect the rules of the game today for learning to respect the society rules tomorrow. Also, a theatre play has been developed and shown on various occasions, and a handbook, Ethics for the Third Millennium, a compendium of past and present ethics lessons organised by themes, has been published. Information on the Ethics Education project can be found at http://www.transparency.it/areapubblica/attività/14_10_6.asp#1.

A summary of TI Italy’s work in English can be found here.

For more information, please contact Lina Esposito Marafon at: info@transparency.it.

New Programme in Africa

TI recently launched a new programme called the Africa Education Watch, aimed at improving transparency and accountability in the use of resources for primary education. It will be implemented by TI’s chapters in Ghana, Madagascar, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Uganda. Through a set of diagnostic measures, national chapters will assess waste, leakages and corruption in the use of resources for primary education. The project also will assess the extent that local accountability structures and instruments such as school management committees, public display of financial information and others, contribute to reducing leakages and corruption. The diagnostic phase will be followed by advocacy campaigns at national and regional level. The project is funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. For more information, please download a summary here.

Selected Readings


Corrupt Schools, Corrupt Universities	Teaching Integrity to Youth	Stealing the Future