ICYO

YOUTH INFORMATION

                           No: 2007/38  (June)

(E-Newsletter from network of youth organizations in India)

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ICYO - Platform of 356 Youth Organizations in India.       

ICYO - India’s largest network of urban and rural youth.

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Corruption in Education a Worldwide Problem

- says new UNESCO Report

 

Illegal registration fees, academic fraud, embezzlement, rigged calls for tender, and many other corrupt practices are seriously undermining education systems around the world according to a UNESCO report released today.

 

“Corrupt schools, corrupt universities: What can be done” is the result of several years of research into ethics and corruption undertaken by UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP). The Report assesses the nature and extent of the problem, how much it is costing societies and how it can be addressed. It refers to the experience of over 60 countries, using information from ministries, development agencies and national research institutes.

 

“This important study calls us to action,” said the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura. “Such widespread corruption not only costs societies billions of dollars, it also seriously undermines the vital effort to provide education for all. It prevents poorer parents from sending their children to school, robs schools and pupils of equipment, lowers teaching standards and thus education standards generally, and compromises the future of our youth. We cannot let it go unchecked.”

 

Several case studies from all regions of the world are presented in the Report, showing the great variety of corrupt practices in both rich and poor countries. According to the Report, leakage of funds from education ministries to schools can represent up to 80 per cent of the total sum of non-salary expenditures in some countries. It finds that bribes and payoffs in teacher recruitment and promotion tend to lower the quality of teachers, while illegal payments for school entrance and other hidden costs contribute to low enrolment and high drop-out rates. Recent surveys have shown that ghost teachers on school payrolls represent five per cent of the payroll in Honduras and 15 per cent in Papua New Guinea.

 

According to the Report, corruption in tertiary education takes the form of fraud in transborder education, fake universities and bogus degrees and accreditation fraud. The number of fake universities on the Internet that offer bogus degrees increased from 200 to 800 between 2000 and 2004. In the Ukraine, high officials from private universities revealed in 2005 that most successful licensing or accreditation applications—which are obligatory for the country’s 175 private universities—required some form of bribery.

 

The authors, Jacques Hallak and Muriel Poisson, look at several places where the introduction of simple measures has all but stamped out corrupt practices. In the early 1990s in Uganda, for example, only 13 per cent of the annual amount granted to schools per student actually got there. The rest was captured by local officials for purposes unrelated to education. A national campaign to inform local communities about where the funds were going has led to a complete reversal of the situation with some 85 per cent of allocated funds reaching their rightful destination as a result.

 

The authors of the report argue that leadership and political will at the highest level of governments is essential. Furthermore, more transparent regulatory systems, stronger management capacities for greater accountability, and greater ownership of the management process can help free educational systems from corruption. They make a number of recommendations on how the problem of corruption can be dealt with, most notably:

 

• Establishing clear norms and regulations, transparent procedures and an explicit policy framework that specify the respective responsibilities of different stakeholders in the allocation, distribution and use of educational resources.

 

• Improving management, accounting, monitoring and audit skills for administrative staff and other stakeholders, including Parent-Teacher Associations, unions and other relevant civil society organizations;

 

• Providing access to information to build participation, ownership and social control. Those closest to the point of delivery – the schools – must be sufficiently well informed not only to be able to detect fraud, but also to claim what they are entitled to receive.

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Youth Information is published by

Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO)

194-A, Arjun Nagar, Safdarjang Enclave

New Delhi 110029, India

Phone: 91 9811729093  / 91 11 26183978 Fax 91 11 26198423

Email: icyoindia@... / icyo@...

Web:  www.icyo.in

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Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO) is a registered non-profit, non-governmental network organization, committed in developing areas of mutual cooperation and understanding among different youth voluntary agencies, youth groups, clubs and individuals working in the field of youth welfare in India. 

ICYO functions as an umbrella organization of youth NGOs in India. It's family consists of
over 356 organizations spread in 122 districts of 22 states from different corners of India.

Our goal:
To improve and extend the youth work and services through Youth Organizations;
To enhance and demonstrate youth work in the society;
To promote effective youth programmmes;
To organize network of civil society organizations working towards the development of youth work;
To organize seminars, conferences, workshops, trainings;
To maintain international relation with organizations promoting young people in their programmes and activities

Affiliation: 

Consultative (Roster) Status with ECOSOC, United Nations;
Consultative Status with Commission on Sustainable Development;
Full Member of World Assembly of Youth (WAY); Asian Youth Council (AYC);
Youth for Habitat International Network (YFHIN); CRIN, South Asia Youth
Environment Network (SAYEN), Affiliate group of ECPAT International, Thailand;
ATSECE-DELHI, Indian Partner of AIDS Care Watch Campaign;
Steering Committee member of World Bank's YDP Network;
Working relation with Indian Association of Parliamentarians (IAPPD);
International Medical Parliamentarians Organizations (IMPO);
Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD);
World Youth Foundation, Malaysia