Corrupt schools, corrupt universities: what can be done?

Combating corruption in education: a guide for policymakers

By: Hallack J & Poisson M
Published by:
Via: Eldis

Corruption is a problem for education systems in both developed and developing countries. This report aims to provide tools to detect and combat corruption in education that can be used by policymakers, educational managers and planners, as well as representatives from civil society working with education. It synthesises the findings of a project on ‘Ethics and Corruption in Education’ that examined practices in over 60 developing and developed countries. Topics addressed in the report include:

• methodological approaches for diagnosing corruption, including participatory assessment, report card surveys, and social audits, and tracking public expenditures
• developing funding formulas and grants where funding is decentralised
• teacher management reform to improve transparency and accountability, and designing and enforcing teacher codes of conduct
• contracting of non-wage expenditures, including school building and maintenance, teaching materials, and school feeding programmes
• exams, credentials and accreditation
• regulating and reducing the need for private tutoring

The final chapter summarises the report and presents guidelines for policymakers, planners and managers. Central recommendations are:

• each country must undertake its own analysis to identify the main areas of corruption and to develop its own strategy to combat it
• to eliminate corruption, measures should simultaneously address issues including political, legal, managerial and other relevant areas
• to achieve institutional and managerial reforms, it is necessary to have clear, transparent procedures and responsibility, good records, effective supervision and provide channels for complaints
• factors that facilitate changes in the broader external environment that impact on corruption in education include effective leadership, competition, the right to information in order to achieve transparency, and collective action

The authors suggest that a ‘virtuous triangle’ can be created through attention to the following three elements:

• the creation and maintenance of regulatory systems
• strengthening management capacities
• enhanced ownership of the management process, which requires developing decentralised and participatory mechanisms, increasing access to information, and empowering communities to exert ‘social control’

(http://www.unesco.org/iiep/PDF/pubs/synth_ethics.pdf?class=IIEP_PDF_pubs&page=hp_Corrupt%20schools%20summary&estat_url=http://www.unesco.org/iiep/PDF/pubs/synth_ethics.pdf)