corruption in education

ETICO - Fighting Corruption in Education

ETICO, a unique new portal aimed at fighting corruption in education systems around the world, is being launched today by the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP-UNESCO).

Corruption is often hard to track and measure, but is found at different levels in countries’ education systems and is hampering access to education and children’s learning. It results in children being denied a good-quality education. Examples of corruption in education range from ghost schools and fake diplomas, to missing textbooks, stolen school supplies, absent teachers and misallocation of school grants.

For example, surveys carried out by IIEP partners tackling corruption estimate that the salaries of absent or ghost teachers may account for 15-20% of payroll costs in some countries; in some cases this is equal to half of the funds allocated to improving school buildings, providing better class equipment and buying school textbooks, etc.

The ETICO database, which houses the latest cutting-edge research tracking ethics and corruption, is a gateway for accessing expert training materials on transparency, accountability and anti-corruption issues in education and for support in implementing anti-corruption tools and strategies.

The global online platform will serve as a key interactive discussion hub for national and international partners who are promoting transparency. It will provide them with the opportunity to upload and share research on this crucial topic to help create a stronger united front against corruption in education.

“It is estimated that corruption is sucking millions of dollars out of the system, and as a result many children are missing out on an education due to malpractices and a serious lack of ethics in the system. The ETICO platform aims to help prevent this by bringing all of the key stakeholders together to fight against the problem and offer expert advice,” IIEP’s Senior Researcher on anti-corruption and ethics in education, Muriel Poisson, said.

Through its blog , the ETICO platform will host in-depth discussions on tackling corruption by sharing news and information, as well as highlighting best practices in countries where interventions against corruption in education have proved successful.

The launch of ETICO coincides with the release of an important new IIEP publication, Achieving Transparency in Pro-Poor Education Incentives . The book outlines the best ways to ensure that scholarships, conditional cash transfers, free school meals, etc., actually reach children from poor backgrounds and families who need it most.

For example, in South Africa, the quintile ranking system was designed to provide enhanced funding to schools serving the poorest students. To ensure that funds are reaching the right schools, several measures have been introduced, such as the use of objective, transparent and publicly known targeting tables. This system is recognized as an important effort towards ensuring greater equity in education by cutting school fees for the poorest children in South Africa, thereby giving them access to education.

In Brazil, the creation of food school councils has reduced the risks of misappropriation of food or fraud in food procurement – both problems in the past – by institutionalizing the process of continuous programme monitoring and accountability. Relying on the participation of the school community and civil society, these councils scrutinize school menus and their related expenses. They help reduce delay in the transfer of resources, cut down operational costs and improve the quality of goods. The Brazilian school lunch programme reaches over 45 million people, and provides stability to the lives of poor families and students.

In the Indian state of Rajasthan, 28% of schools have introduced display boards that are available for public scrutiny. Usually painted on the school building, they display key information related to the daily functioning of the school, e.g. all financial investments made by the school; teacher attendance, etc. Publicly displayed transparency boards are now regarded as an important feature of community-based monitoring and public hearings are held where people are invited to give testimonies of corrupt practices and government officials are called upon to take action.

Presenting research comparing seven projects implemented worldwide, Achieving Transparency in Pro-Poor Education Incentives shows that measures taken to confront corruption risks – such as school display boards, local transparency mechanisms, appeal mechanisms, social audits, and informal whistleblowing, among actions taken is key in the battle against corruption in education. These measures are seen as crucial tools for achieving the Education for All goals . They are presented in detail on ETICO, together with hundreds of other such cases.

• Visit the ETICO portal

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October 1991 | Volume 20, Issue 10

The Corruption of Education: Failing Colleges, Political Correctness and Federal Funding

George roche.

President, Hillsdale College

American Colleges in Crisis

We’ve been hearing a lot about the ills and excesses of American higher education in the last few decades. People on all sides of the political spectrum are deeply disturbed by them and have called for a variety of solutions. But no solution will work until we identify the root cause of these problems.

It is not the lack of money spent on education—we spend billions. It is not some sweeping social injustice—we live in an age which offers unprecedented freedom, diversity and opportunity. It is not even that we have forgotten the best ways of teaching knowledge or inculcating virtue, although we have indeed forgotten and are paying a heavy price. So what  is  the root cause? It is the dead hand of political influence.

Government money and the inevitable fall-out of that money are ruining American higher education. As early as 1952, a national academic commission warned: “We are convinced that it would be fatal were federal support to be substantially extended…the freedom of higher education would be lost.”

Evidence abounds to reveal that federal money and federal control are ultimately responsible for: quotas; lowered academic standards; soaring costs; loss of efficiency and productivity; corruption; price-fixing; incoherent curricula; “politically correct” thinking; the politicization of campus life and administration; neglect of traditional values; and the abolition of free inquiry and open discussion.

Quotas and Lowered Standards

Enforced by the threat of withholding federal funds, quotas have become the single most egregious display of political muscle and influence on campus today. Of course, no one admits enforcing quotas; but they quite clearly dictate which students are accepted, which are given financial aid, and which faculty and staff are hired, promoted or given tenure. When you control who is teaching and who is learning, you have a large measure of control indeed, and that is just what government-mandated affirmative action amounts to: control of higher education.

The resulting loss of quality in education is enormous, and has negative consequences not only for the immediate welfare of this generation, but for generations to come. When merit ceases to be the primary qualification for college admissions and hiring policies, should we be surprised when it is absent in the classroom? Once you begin, as virtually all major educational institutions in this country have, to judge people and reward them solely because their race, their ethnic background or their sex is an alleged disadvantage, you have accepted the premise that merit is actually  unjust  and  undesirable  and that genuine equal opportunity is a myth.

The lowered standards that quotas encourage not only adversely affect admissions, hiring, curriculum and issues of equality, but also result in attrition rates that ought to make headlines as a national scandal: One half of all students who enroll in America’s colleges never graduate.

Soaring Costs, Financial Collapse

Another closely guarded secret of higher education is that many colleges are on the verge of financial collapse. Brought about by heavy attrition, overexpansion and an endless proliferation of costly programs, numerous institutions—the names would surprise you—are scrambling for their very survival. One prominent East Coast institution about Hillsdale’s size, but with 2 1/2 times the endowment and 2 1/4 times the tuition, is about to close its doors, despite every effort to rally alumni and outside support. More are bound to follow in the next decade.

Why aren’t such colleges, which seem to be in excellent shape on the surface, prospering?

One reason is the soaring cost of a college education, which makes it harder than ever for schools to attract and retain students. College costs are rising far faster than inflation—twice as fast as the general economy. The average tuition fee at public colleges is $12,000; $19,000 at their private counterparts. Tuition has gone up because the government, like the dealer in a high-stakes poker game, has raised the ante for all the players through massive amounts of federal student aid.

Some of the increased expenditure is also due to faculty expansion, but the real jump has occurred in non-faculty hiring. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, academic support staff has increased an average 61 percent nationwide since 1979. At some schools it is far higher; at the University of Michigan, the figure is 87.5 percent. Colleges not only have every incentive to expand in the quest for more and more government funding, but they are compelled to do so, because their federal patrons in Washington, D.C. want to micromanage virtually every aspect of academic life.

Colleges are required to keep detailed records of all applications, enrollments, academic records, personnel files, suspensions, hirings, promotions, denial of promotions, and so on, all broken down by race, ethnic background, age and sex. They must also hire on-campus “supervisory personnel” whose only job is to make sure that the school paying their salaries is complying with all federal regulations and to be on the lookout for any sign of alleged discrimination. One affirmative action planning officer’s smug explanation for the rising levels of college support staff is: “They have to hire more people like me.”

Larry Uzzell, a former DOE official, reveals that “the Department of Education regulation-writers openly dictate to schools…The department enforces a total of more than one thousand pages of fineprint laws and regulations—a standing refutation of the 1950s claim that federal aid would not promote federal control.”

When it comes to financial mismanagement, colleges are the worst-run institutions in the country. The federal trough has encouraged long-term fiscal irresponsibility and even outright corruption.

Look for a moment at government research grants to education, which are rapidly becoming a disproportionate part of many institutions’ budgets and which lead to all kinds of faculty, staff and facility expansion that can’t be reversed once the grants are exhausted.

Then there is the question of “overhead.” Suppose a college receives a four-year, four-million dollar grant for chemistry lab research. For the first three years, the grant is used to pay for the research as well as the costs of administration. But, quite typically, the college will have incurred so many overhead costs that during the fourth year, all remaining funds will be redirected to administration and the chemistry department will get none; the purpose for which the grant exists is what is deemed expendable.

At Stanford University, the richest school in America, the overhead rate for federal grants is 74 percent. It charged the government $550 million in overhead in the 1980s. Stanford allocated this taxpayer money to such worthy purposes as the renovation of the president’s closets, the depreciation of a 72-foot yacht, and “edible art.” When challenged, the University agreed to reduce its rate to 72 percent, but no more; after all, Harvard Medical School’s overhead rate is 88 percent, and it is seeking to persuade the government to allow an increase to 96 percent! (Wisely, the government has decided to reduce its research grants to Stanford by more than $18 million.)

Not to be outdone, Dartmouth has achieved a new low in ethical misconduct in its systematic suppression of the  Dartmouth Review . Believe it or not, the school sought federal reimbursement of thousands of dollars in a court case against this independent and “politically incorrect” student newspaper.

The corruption is even more wide-reaching. The U.S. Department of Justice has charged a number of well-known colleges with illegal price fixing on student aid, further suspecting that heavy tuition increases over the past several decades reflect collusion.

Rejection of Traditional Governance

The rejection of traditional patterns of institutional governance is also to blame for the dismal performance of today’s colleges. Whereas trustees and administrators once guided most daily and long-term decisions, faculty senates and committees have usurped their role.

The loss of efficiency and productivity at faculty-driven institutions is striking. Education critics like Charles Sykes, author of  Profscam  and  The Hollow Men , have produced hundreds of pages of evidence to prove that many teachers don’t teach. The central responsibility and mission of colleges—educating undergraduates—is often left up to a sundry collection of part-timers and graduate students. At Princeton, for example, one-half of all undergraduate courses are taught by graduate students; Sykes claims that the figure is as high as two-thirds at some schools, even though they continue to expand their faculty and staff.

This trend will continue because there is less and less accountability to the consumer—the student, the parent, the alumnus, the outside donor, in short, the real world. That erosion of accountability is directly related to the flood tide of political money reaching American campuses.

Curricular Collapse

Quotas, soaring costs changes in governance, corruption and financial collapse, have also resulted in reduced emphasis on the traditional liberal arts and the growth of shabby, incoherent, politicized curricula. With the campaign for “diversity above all things,” there is a deliberate abandonment of a core of common knowledge for students. They are now treated to a smorgasbord of relativism and “alternative” courses. (All this, by the way, drives up the tuition costs cited earlier.)

Just a few years ago, Johns Hopkins University, which was receiving $500 million a year in federal grants alone, decided to gut its classics department, reducing the number of professors by half; it further announced an across-the-board 10 percent cut for the humanities. The same thing has happened at other institutions.

But that’s not all; there are more common assaults on the curriculum. Four Harvard professors, members of the Academic Subcommittee of the University’s Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Issues Network, recently wrote to the faculty soliciting course descriptions for their new student brochure (Yale’s was enclosed as a sample).

As Midge Decter reports, for only $18,000 a year you can provide this kind of thoroughly “mainstream” education for your 18 year-old son or daughter. Or, for about the same cost, you could try Swarthmore, where students can enroll in a “history” course that “examines love and death, vocation and avocation, life after death, and the resurgence of the occult in United States popular culture.”

For English majors, there is a course in “Laconian conceptions of metaphor and metonymy, feminist deployments of psychoanalytic theory, and the Marxist reconsiderations of culture…with special attention to the conflations of personal vehemence found in feminist and black poetry of the 1970s and 1980s.”

At Barnard College (at least the last time I checked) the freshman seminar requirement could be fulfilled by taking a course called simply, “Seduced and (Sometimes) Abandoned.” As my 18 year-old freshman daughter would say, “Get real.”

Where are these ridiculous courses coming from? Are they rare exceptions? Well, here are just a few of the papers presented recently at the annual meetings of the Modem Language Association, the largest, most prestigious and most “mainstream” faculty organization in the country:

• “The Detective as Pervert”
• “Strategies for Teaching a Feminist Latin American Culture Course”

Or consider this comment from an Ivy League religious studies professor summarizing what then-HEW demanded his department do to keep up with changing times: “we should discontinue such old-fashioned programs [Biblical studies], in which minority groups could not participate, and instead establish programs without language requirements, which they could do—e.g., a Ph.D. in black theology or whatever.”

Federal agencies, incidentally, always call for reductions in academic requirements. For years, they have also actively supported and engaged in race-norming, whereby an individual’s test score is “adjusted” according to his race. Minorities should protest this dumbing-down as racist, and not just on the grounds of civil rights. When objective standards take a back seat to race-centered practices, the self-esteem of the very groups being “protected” is destroyed.

“Political Correctness”

Objective standards, free inquiry and open discussion are just what is at issue in the current debate over “PC,” or “political correctness.” The  Wall Street Journal  charges that PC has turned the American academy into “an ideological foxhole” overrun with “ivory censors.”

Even critics on the left agree that the college campus is the last bastion of radicalism. Marxist historian Eugene Genovese complains that black and women’s studies courses are often nothing more than “ideological conscious-raising sessions.” Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. worries that professors are telling minorities that “the Western democratic tradition…is not for them.”

Such fears are well-founded. Intellectuals who came of age in the 1960s have moved into the classroom and their anti-traditionalist, anti-capitalist, anti-American biases have moved with them. Grown fat on federal grants and minimal or nonexistent teaching loads, they have become “a kept class,” hostile to the Western tradition, hostile to the culture which feeds it.

Many observers are also troubled that PC professors have launched open war on religious values and the spiritual roots of Western civilization. Gone is the notion that the moral life has anything to do with education, or that the history of the West, based on a 2000 year-old Judeo-Christian heritage, is worthy of study. “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Western Culture’s got to go” was the chant at Stanford. At Duke one student’s indignant remark sums up how the hostility is communicated in the classroom: “I wouldn’t touch Milton. I know what that guy was up to—he was a sexist through and through.”

Common PC targets are the “Great Books” and classic works of Western civilization that are dismissed as the work of “dead white males.” (This attitude pervades all of American education. The New York State Board of Education, for instance, has characterized the U.S. Constitution as “the embodiment of the white male with property model.”)

PC advocates call not only for the abolition of the core curriculum (in the few places where it still survives) but for a plethora of new Marxist, minority, feminist and Third World college courses and for a complete restructuring of campus life.  Washington Post  columnist William Raspberry calls this, plainly, a new form of segregation. Subsidized feminist, Chicano, black, gay, and lesbian courses, clubs, associations, centers, dorms, and dining arrangements for every conceivable racial, ethnic, cultural, political, and sexual preference breed more, not less, intolerance and divisiveness.

At the University of Connecticut, there is a ban on “inappropriate laughter.” At Kenyon College, men are allowed to enroll in “Biology of Feminine Sexuality,” but are forbidden to speak. At one school there are even rules against failing to include someone in a conversation. The University of Michigan has attempted to restrict 1st Amendment rights by establishing the most restrictive campus-wide codes of acceptable/unacceptable behavior and speech.

According to the  Detroit News , Michigan even dictates the use of politically correct vocabulary: “sexual orientation” over “sexual preference,” “life partner” over “spouse,” and (my personal favorite) “personhole” over “manhole.” Similar instances of PC are the rule at Berkeley, Oberlin, Emory, Yale, Stanford, Duke and elsewhere.

Baruch College, one of New York’s model affirmative action schools, fell short of PC expectations and was nearly denied accreditation in 1990 by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. While declaring Baruch to be “an excellent academic institution,” the agency objected that it “emphasized academic values without exhibiting equal concern for the values of social justice and equity critical to serving working people in a multicultural urban environment.” (The agency has also labeled 15 to 20 other colleges suspect and is proceeding accordingly.)

PC also challenges other aspects of academic freedom. Schools regularly match professors’ racial and ethnic background and gender with courses they are allowed to teach, resulting in segregated academic fields. By a variety of indirect methods, students are also “matched” to their “appropriate” areas of study.

When it comes to dissenting from the PC party line, students can forget about their chances of receiving a fair hearing. If a professor dissents, he is faced with the prospect of organized vilification, denied committee appointments, lost tenure and promotion opportunities, and other forms of harassment.

In summary, PC has shifted the focus of higher education from the search for truth to mere indoctrination and political transformation—reflected most strongly in the leveling impulse which is its central feature. In the name of multiculturalism, social justice and diversity, we are left with just the opposite: rigid conformity.

Political Money = Political Campuses

I have argued throughout that it is federal funding that has paid for and encouraged the rot which is eating away at American higher education. As a college president who knows first-hand how tough it is to raise millions of dollars to keep a school going, it is certainly tempting to ignore this conclusion. Federal money is such easy money. There are literally hundreds of inducements and pressures to accept it, and it always appears—at first—to come without strings attached; there are plenty of politicians and bureaucrats to assure it.

Don’t believe them: Federal funding always means federal control, and it wrongly shields colleges from the normal and healthy forces of the marketplace. Educational reform is impossible so long as billions of dollars in federal funding keep the current system afloat.

Look only at one single index of how dependent American colleges have become on the federal government: Of all available student aid, 75 percent is federal; 7 percent is state; and 18 percent comes from the institutions. That means three out of every four dollars in student aid is a federal dollar.

One out of every two college students depends on federal aid. There is consuming reliance on federal funds to support every aspect of higher education, at private as well as public colleges. They will now pipe any tune to insure that federal largesse continues.

How can anyone seriously suggest that federal funding has no impact on academic freedom when it picks up most of the tab?

Hillsdale College: Free from Federal Funds and Federal Control

Compare politically funded campuses—public and private—with Hillsdale College:

• we keep costs down
• we stress teaching—real students, real professors
• we hire and promote on merit
• we admit students on merit
• the overwhelming percentage of our students graduate
• traditional values and attitudes are defended as the core of a genuine liberal arts education
• quality orientation and objective standards inform and guide our educational mission

And at Hillsdale, the entrepreneurial solution is to raise all our own funds from the private sector. The College does not accept one penny of federal money. We are therefore free from most kinds of government control, able to determine our own affairs and to defend the freedom and traditional values of our faculty and students and of our growing constituency throughout the country. Once other colleges valued this kind of freedom and independence—the question is, will they ever value it again?

George Roche has served as president of Hillsdale College since 1971. Firing Line , the MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour , Today , Newsweek , Time , Reader’s Digest and the Wall Street Journal have chronicled his efforts to keep the College free from federal intrusion. Formerly the presidentially-appointed chairman of the National Council on Educational Research, the director of seminars at the Foundation for Economic Education, a professor of history at the Colorado School of Mines, and a U.S. Marine, he is the author of ten books, including five Conservative Book Club selections, among them: America by the Throat: The Stranglehold of Federal Bureaucracy (1985), Going Home (1986), A World Without Heroes: The Modern Tragedy (1987), and A Reason for Living (1989). His most recent book is One by One: Preserving Freedom and Values in Heartland America (1990).

Archived Imprimis Issues

Contributors.

The Hidden Cost of Corruption: Teacher Absenteeism and Loss in Schools

Harry a. patrinos.

While corruption hampers all development efforts, it is a debilitating presence in the education sector.  In my contribution to the report, I highlight the damage from corruption in one of the most important aspects of education, teacher absenteeism.

• The Global Corruption Report: Education (Transparency International)
• World Bank and Education  

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Fighting Corruption in the Education Sector

November 14, 2015.

This publication is part of a series of UNDP-sponsored studies that present methods, tools and good practices to map corruption risks, develop strategies and sustain partnerships to address challenges and tackle corruption in the education, health and water sectors. They complement UNDP’s MDG Acceleration Framework (MAF), which has been endorsed by the UN Development Group and enables governments and development partners, within established national processes, to identify and systematically prioritize the bottlenecks to progress toward achieving the MDGs, and then devise strategies to overcome them. The studies bring together UNDP’s efforts to support countries to develop frameworks to accelerate their efforts to meet the MDGs as well as successfully meet the commitments of the UN Convention against Corruption.

Other studies in the series:

Fighting Corruption in the Health Sector: Methods, Tools and Good Practices

Fighting Corruption in the Water Sector: Methods, Tools and Good Practices

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• 1. Policing in democracies & need for accountability, integrity, oversight
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• 1. The Many Forms of Violence against Children
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• 1a. Judicial Independence as Fundamental Value of Rule of Law & of Constitutionalism
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• Basics of Computing
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• Knowledge Management
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• Framing the Issue of Firearms
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• Firearms Trafficking as a Cross-Cutting Element
• Organized Crime and Organized Criminal Groups
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• Teaching Methods & Principles
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• Defining Organized Crime
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• Root Causes
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• Role of the Media
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• Trafficked Persons as Victims
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• Identification of Victims
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• Comparing SOM and TIP
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• Basic Terms - Gender and Gender Stereotypes
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• Global Overview on TIP and SOM
• Gender and Migration
• Key Debates in the Scholarship on TIP and SOM
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• Use of Technology to Facilitate TIP and SOM
• Technology Facilitating Trafficking in Persons
• Technology in Smuggling of Migrants
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• Privacy and Data Concerns
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• Supply and Demand
• Implications of Wildlife Trafficking
• Legal and Illegal Markets
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• Challenges for Law Enforcement
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• Wild Flora as the Target of Illegal Trafficking
• Purposes for which Wild Flora is Illegally Targeted
• How is it Done and Who is Involved?
• Consequences of Harms to Wild Flora
• Terminology
• Background: Communities and conservation: A history of disenfranchisement
• Incentives for communities to get involved in illegal wildlife trafficking: the cost of conservation
• Incentives to participate in illegal wildlife, logging and fishing economies
• International and regional responses that fight wildlife trafficking while supporting IPLCs
• Mechanisms for incentivizing community conservation and reducing wildlife trafficking
• Critiques of community engagement
• Other challenges posed by wildlife trafficking that affect local populations
• Global Podcast Series
• Apr. 2021: Call for Expressions of Interest: Online training for academics from francophone Africa
• Feb. 2021: Series of Seminars for Universities of Central Asia
• Dec. 2020: UNODC and TISS Conference on Access to Justice to End Violence
• Nov. 2020: Expert Workshop for University Lecturers and Trainers from the Commonwealth of Independent States
• Oct. 2020: E4J Webinar Series: Youth Empowerment through Education for Justice
• Interview: How to use E4J's tool in teaching on TIP and SOM
• E4J-Open University Online Training-of-Trainers Course
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Module 9: Corruption in Education

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University Module Series: Anti-Corruption

  This module is a resource for lecturers  

Where does corruption in education come from? A useful way to think about why and when individuals would engage in corruption is to start from the rewards and drawbacks of such acts. A leading model of crime was developed by Becker and Stigler (1974), who showed that individuals will engage in a criminal activity if they calculate that they have more to gain than to lose from it. Benefits may come in the form of money or non-financial advantages, while potential losses or costs may come in the form of punishment, for example shaming, fines or prison. In their mental calculation, individuals also estimate how likely it is that they will be caught and punished - which is based on the probability of detection. This accounting is common across sectors, but the costs, benefits and the chance of detection take specific forms in education. According to Hallak and Poisson (2007, pp. 40-41), the main factors that explain corruption in education are:

On the benefits side:

• The high rate of return : Because people hope to get a well-paid job through educational degrees, some people are willing to pay bribes or engage in other corrupt practices to improve their records on paper or gain a formal qualification. Where school funding or educator remuneration is tied to student performance, there are strong incentives for malfeasance among educators and principals, be it cheating or illicit agreements to attract more students. Jacob and Levitt (2003) discuss the perils of high-powered incentive education systems.
• Low salaries of public officials and educators : In some countries, the salaries of educators do not support even a basic livelihood, or are perceived as unfairly low relative to the workload - which may lead educators to use their position of power to extract payments and other benefits. Borcan, Lindahl and Mitrut (2014) showed how a 25 per cent austerity-driven wage cut for all teachers in Romania led to more cheating in a national exam. As in other sectors, officials and educators may have paid a bribe to gain their position in the first place, so continued fraudulent acts are a predictable outflow.

On the costs side:

• Weak ethical norms and poor rule of law : In places where corruption is widely prevalent, the moral resistance to engaging in corruption is substantially reduced. This factor makes it more difficult to fight corruption in many sectors and countries, including in those experiencing economic crisis or political transition. Moreover, if law enforcement is known to be weak, then punishments and the possibility of detection are virtually absent, making it worthwhile to take part in corruption. To learn more about ethics, see the E4J University Module Series on Integrity and Ethics .

On the detection side:

• The complexity of education and lack of transparent governance : The multiplicity of goals of educational institutions and the over-centralization or decentralization of decision-making processes often make institutional rules opaque to the beneficiaries and the general public. Accountability is diffused across many beneficiaries of education and regulating bodies, making it unclear to whom schools and universities truly answer. The balance often tips towards the bureaucrats, and when they are themselves corrupt, the very concept of accountability becomes moot. On top of this, abuses of confidentiality principles and ad hoc decision-making without a proper paper trail mean that corrupt decisions are more easily covered up and harder to detect.
• The size and distribution of education : Schools, staff and accompanying administrations represent resources that are usually spread across the length and breadth of countries. This makes tracking resources more difficult and oversight of potentially corrupt conduct more complex.

Corruption in education intersects with questions of integrity and ethics in both the private and public sectors, which are discussed in further detail in Module 11 and Module 13 of the E4J University Module Series on Integrity and Ethics and in Module 4 and Module 5 of the E4J University Module Series on Anti-Corruption. For a general discussion of professional ethics, which also applies to education, see Module 14 of the E4J University Module Series on Integrity and Ethics.

Next: Fighting corruption in education

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Foreign higher education and corruption: is host country knowledge a blessing or a curse? Empirical evidence from MENA countries

• Published: 02 September 2024

Cite this article

• Faris Alshubiri   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1470-5266 1 ,
• Hyder Husni A. L. Mughrabi 2 &
• Tareq Alhousary   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9912-8199 3  

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between foreign higher education and corruption in 14 home countries in the MENA region and 13 host countries from 2007 to 2021. Panel-estimated generalized least squares, robust least squares MM estimation, dynamic panel data estimation, and one-step difference generalized method of moments was used to overcome heterogeneity and endogeneity issues and increase robustness. The study adopted the positive grease-the-wheels theory of corruption and the greed or need (GONE) theory in which the need for corruption develops into greed for corruption, revealing a significant positive relationship between foreign higher education and corruption in the MENA countries. Meanwhile, the sand-in-the-wheel theory of corruption and anti-corruption mechanisms that encourage less greed per the GONE theory revealed a significant negative relationship between foreign higher education and corruption in origin countries after students returned to their home countries. The study findings support the idea that foreign knowledge is a blessing for MENA countries. Furthermore, there was a significant positive relationship between foreign higher education and corruption in the host countries because students adapted to the host country’s environment. The main conclusion was that governments should encourage students to study abroad in countries with less corruption, supporting the main hypothesis, which posited that ethics and values are adopted abroad and transferred to home countries. Furthermore, constitutional reform and economic development should be adopted to implement the anti-corruption system and control public spending on education.

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Included Home MENA Countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Excluded Home MENA Countries: Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Palestine, Sudan, and Yemen.

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Alshubiri, F., Mughrabi, H.H.A.L. & Alhousary, T. Foreign higher education and corruption: is host country knowledge a blessing or a curse? Empirical evidence from MENA countries. Asia Pacific Educ. Rev. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-024-10000-7

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U4 Helpdesk Answer

The impacts of corruption on young people and their role in preventing corruption.

Young people are vulnerable to multiple forms of corruption that result in severe negative impacts spanning the social, economic and political dimensions of their lives. Anti-corruption measures can consciously seek to inform young people about the effects of corruption and engage them through activism, innovation, and social accountability initiatives. An important enabling condition is that national stakeholders provide meaningful opportunities for youth participation.

Main points

• Available survey evidence suggests young people are often more exposed to corruption than the general population.
• Corruption is associated with a range of negative outcomes on issues that matter greatly to young people, especially in the realm of education. This can contribute to unemployment, emigration and political alienation.
• While primarily victims of corruption, some young people learn from an early age that corrupt practices are normal and view them as necessary to get ahead. Evidence increasingly shows that tailored education measures can help nurture young people’s intolerance for corrupt and unethical behaviour.
• Many positive examples have emerged in recent years showcasing the potential of engaging youth in anti-corruption, drawing on their ability to raise awareness, innovate and monitor and report corruption.
• Nevertheless, in many cases young people’s involvement may be underutilised or treated as tokenistic or cosmetic by national authorities. This has led many voices in the field to propose more meaningful forms of engagement for young people in anti-corruption efforts.

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BREAKING: Father of suspected Georgia school shooter arrested on charges that include involuntary manslaughter

Ex-top aide to N.Y. Gov. Kathy Hochul was a secret Chinese agent, prosecutors say

A former top aide to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul was arrested Tuesday on federal charges of acting as a secret agent of the Chinese government, authorities said.

Linda Sun, 41, is accused of using her high-ranking positions in state government to serve the interests of the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party in exchange for millions of dollars. Her husband, Chris Hu, 40, was also arrested in the alleged scheme.

Sun was charged with violating and conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, visa fraud, alien smuggling and money laundering. Hu was charged with money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and misuse of means of identification.

Both pleaded not guilty Tuesday afternoon. Sun was set to be released on a $1.5 million bond, her husband on a $500,000 bond.

“We are disappointed by the filing of these charges, which are inflammatory and appear to be the product of an overly aggressive prosecution," Sun's lawyers, Jarrod Schaeffer and Kenneth Abell, said in a statement after the hearing. "We are also troubled by aspects of the government’s investigation. As we said today in court, our client is eager to exercise her right to a speedy trial and to defend against these accusations in the proper forum — a court of law.”

The arrests come six weeks after FBI agents searched the couple's $3.5 million home in a gated community in Manhasset on Long Island. 

Sun worked in state government for roughly 15 years, holding positions in the administration of then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo before becoming Hochul’s deputy chief of staff, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Avi Small, a spokesman for Hochul, said Sun was hired more than a decade ago and fired in March 2023 after "evidence of misconduct" was discovered. Small said Hochul's staff immediately reported her actions to law enforcement and have assisted the authorities working the case.

According to the 64-page indictment, Sun blocked Taiwanese government representatives from getting access to high-ranking New York state officials and altered the messaging of state officials on issues of importance to the Chinese government — all at the request of Chinese officials. Sun also helped Chinese government officials travel to the U.S. and meet with New York officials by providing unauthorized invitation letters from high-level state officers, according to the indictment.

"Sun’s unauthorized invitation letters for the PRC government delegation constituted false statements made in connection with immigration documents and induced the foreign citizens into unlawfully entering the United States," Brooklyn federal prosecutors said in a press release.

"Sun never registered as a foreign agent with the Attorney General, and in fact actively concealed that she took actions at the order, request, or direction of PRC government and the CCP representatives."

In return, Sun received millions of dollars in transactions for the China-based business activities of her husband, tickets to events, employment for her cousin in China and Nanjing-style salted ducks that were prepared by a Chinese government official’s personal chef and delivered to the residence of Sun’s parents, according to prosecutors.

The couple used the money to buy their home on Long Island, as well as a $2 million condominium in Honolulu and luxury cars, including a 2024 Ferrari, prosecutors said.

Liu Pengyu, the spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said U.S. authorities have brought similar cases in the past only to see them fall apart.

"I am not aware of the specific details. But in recent years, the U.S. government and media have frequently hyped up the so-called ‘Chinese agents’ narratives, many of which have later been proven untrue," he said. "China requires its citizens overseas to comply with the laws and regulations of the host country, and we firmly oppose the groundlessly slandering and smearing targeting China."

According to her government bio, Sun was appointed deputy chief of staff to Hochul, a Democrat, in September 2021. At the time, she was the highest-appointed Asian American in the administration.

After leaving Hochul’s office, she served briefly as a deputy secretary in the state Labor Department.

Jonathan Dienst is chief justice contributor for NBC News and chief investigative reporter for WNBC-TV in New York.

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Civil society: A key voice in tackling corruption in education

Eol_web.png.

When education is free of corruption, and a strong culture of transparency and accountability prevails, doors can open for millions of children and youth worldwide. They can access their right to quality education. To accelerate, how can the education sector join forces with civil society organizations? Education Out Loud grantees from Tanzania, Cambodia, and Zimbabwe explain. 

Spotlight on Tanzania

Roselyne Mariki, the Country Manager for So They Can in Tanzania, recently completed a multi-faceted capacity development programme organized by IIEP-UNESCO as a Global Learning Partner for Education Out Loud (EOL) , the Global Partnership for Education (GPE)'s fund for advocacy and social accountability. 

Through this programme, Mariki along with some 90 other participants, joined a four-week online course on tools – i.e. public expenditure tracking surveys ,  codes of conduct , citizen report cards , and integrity pacts – that civil society actors can help implement to improve transparency and accountability in education. 

Mariki joined the course’s Learning Champion path, which allowed her to team up with other Tanzanian civil society organizations and a government official to develop a common project and action plan on how to apply the code of conduct tool to enhance transparency and accountability. 

This was an eye-opening learning opportunity for me”. Roselyne Mariki, Country Manager, So They Can, Tanzania

Mariki says most public schools face many challenges, such as poor infrastructure or lack of sufficient resources to deliver quality education. “However, since communities are responsible for resourcing the public primary schools, there is a need to empower them to understand how their contributions are valuable to the provision of quality education to their children. And how they can make sure that resources intended for the schools are actually used for the schools”, she explains. 

Armed with new skills and knowledge, Mariki says she is now ready to act. First, share with the team the lessons learnt from the course, and second, as part of strengthening the School Management Committees, tackle the lack of ownership around school report cards so that they are more transparent and accessible to all stakeholders including students, parents and community members. 

Together with her fellow EOL grantee team members, she is planning to work on a project focusing on codes of conduct for higher education teachers, an idea that was conceived during the training course. She says that ‘lecturers are not teachers’, and some misuse their positions for their own benefit, including sexual exploitation. There is also a disconnect regarding who is holding these teachers accountable”. 

“This is a burning issue that needs to be addressed”, Mariki says. “Through this training, we have an opportunity to really explore this jointly with other organizations and implement a new project as a starting point for Tanzania”.

Spotlight on Cambodia

Vera Ushurova is a project coordinator for the NGO Education Partnership in Cambodia, a coalition of around 128 organizations that advocates for better policy implementation. 

After joining the capacity development programme offered by the IIEP, including the course and two webinars on school report cards and open government, she’s now focusing her efforts on filling information gaps between state-level policies and how they are rolled out in remote areas.

“There is not a lot of communication about policy implementation in the remote areas between provincial and national level stakeholders. Ultimately, there are too few feedback mechanisms,” she says.

To tackle this, she relies on a series of policy implementation checklists, a variation of the more classic School Report Card, to observe, monitor, and report on specific policies and policy standards. “This is very useful, and it can be done by civil society quite effectively,” she says. 

Regarding the course, she found the self-paced module remarkably user-friendly and enjoyable. She firmly believes that the other EOL grantees who participated in this course have gained significant benefits and enhanced their capacities to address corruption in the education sector. 

The course provided us with opportunities to work both individually and in a team. Also, our group was incredibly diverse”.  Vera Ushurova, project coordinator, NGO Education Partnership, Cambodia

Spotlight on Zimbabwe

Naison Bhunhu, the Director of ZINECDA , said he was able to learn about what other civil society actors are doing around the world – from Ghana to Pakistan – through the interactive forums. He also pursued the champion path and tuned into the webinars on school report cards and open government in education. 

He says he now has a stronger grasp on how to use various tools that are at his disposal, which allow him and his colleagues to play the role of a watchdog in Zimbabwe’s early childhood development sub-sector. 

The importance of transparency and accountability typically arises during budget analyses. “Issues of inequity are very much pronounced, and in terms of the allocation of resources,” he says. “We tend to see the better-trained teachers being allocated to urban stations and less so in rural areas, and this is not good for the mantra that no child should be left behind”. 

One of the challenges is that information is not systematic in the public arena. Or when it is, it may be outdated, and it cannot inform decision-making processes”. Naison Bhunhu, Director, ZINECDA, Zimbabwe 

Bhunhu is determined to help foster a more conducive environment for the implementation of early learning in Zimbabwe. One idea he has now after completing the capacity development programme is to draw evidence from the annual public expenditure tracking surveys (PETS) and school report cards to boost his organization’s advocacy at the national level.

New research on how to engage civil society organizations in education sector policy design and implementation

This capacity development programme is also informing a new IIEP research study on how to involve civil society organizations in sector planning and implementation.

To achieve the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4 ), educational planning and management must become more inclusive and participatory. Educational planning must also be capable of adaptation, considering the evolving needs of the population, the job market, and increasing uncertainties in our world today. 

The engagement of civil society is key to ensuring that citizen voices are heard and that marginalized populations are served more effectively. Civil society can also act as a watchdog, to ensure that educational policies reflect real needs and that any identified issues are quickly addressed and resolved. 

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Breaking news, with tim walz subpoena, congress demands the answers on covid fraud that the media won’t ask.

The House Education and Workforce Committee is yet again doing the job the media won’t, by holding Dem VP hopeful Tim Walz accountable for his atrocious record as Minnesota governor — this time over an infamous, massive episode of COVID fraud. 

Quick recap: A Minnesota charity, Feeding Our Future, took advantage of pandemic-era rules that let student-meal programs cooperate off school grounds to run as many as 250 utterly fake meal-assistance sites to siphon off close to a cool $250 million in federal aid funds. 

That was spent not on feeding kids but on things like luxury cars and high-end real estate; per Attorney General Merrick Garland, it was the single biggest pandemic scam for which charges have yet been brought.  

And it all happened on Walz’s watch, as his Department of Education was supposed to be providing oversight.

Now, Walz faces a big-time document subpoena from the committee, chaired by indefatigable Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) — in service of digging up answers to the hard questions around the fraud.  

Questions that should have been asked by every journo in America the day his name was pulled out of the veepstakes hat. 

Above all: How can Americans now trust you in the second-highest office in the land?

The COVID scam was public and appalling — it literally stole food from the mouths of hungry kids — and he was the man in charge of the state where it happened.

Yet in general, Americans heard only the most muted response to this Walz scandal from the press.

As we have on his drunk-driving lies, his lies about his service, his disastrous delay in deploying the National Guard during the Floyd riots and on and on and on. 

If the legacy media had its way, Walz would waltz into office with zero scrutiny. 

So kudos to Foxx & Co. — but it’s still beyond pathetic Congress has to do the actual journalism these days. 

Thursday, September 5, 2024

Senior cop in court for alleged corruption resulting in sabotage of a company’s London Stock Exchange listing

A former crime intelligence police colonel is accused of accepting a R20,000 bribe as part of a scheme to extort shares and threatening to sabotage a company’s listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). File picture: Pexels

Published Sep 4, 2024

Former crime intelligence police colonel, Vassan Soobramoney, was granted R5,000 bail in the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court on corruption charges.

The charges were brought against him by Gert Viljoen, CEO of Umuthi Healthcare Solutions.

Soobramoney is accused of allegedly accepting a R20,000 bribe from another suspect in the same case, Anthony Morris, as part of a scheme to extort shares in Umuthi under threat of sabotaging the company’s listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

He appeared in court on August 29. The case was postponed to October 11, for further investigation in the same court.

Soobramoney told the court that the R20,000 paid into his account by Morris was a loan repayment from a personal friend and nothing more, and he intended to prove this at trial.

As part of this bail conditions, he has to surrender his passport, avoid any direct or indirect contact with witnesses and the complainant (Viljoen) and report to Benoni Police Station twice a week.

He told the court that he had spent more than 37 years in the police force and has worked his way up to positions of trust. By the time he retired he held top secret clearance.

It is alleged that Soobramoney was medically boarded due to a heart condition and other related health conditions.

A second arrest warrant has also been issued for Anthony Morris, who remains a fugitive from justice, having fled South Africa for Zambia in 2022 to avoid arrest.

Extradition proceedings have been launched to return Morris to South Africa to face corruption charges related to the sabotage of the Umuthi Healthcare listing on the London Stock Exchange in 2021.

The criminal complaint alleges that Soobramoney accompanied Morris to a meeting with Viljoen on March 2, 2020, at Emperors Palace in Johannesburg.

Soobramoney claimed to be investigating a case of fraud relating to the unlawful sale of shares in Umuthi Healthcare prior to the company’s listing on the LSE from consultants at the time Connie van Nieuwkerk and Tony McKeever.

Soobramoney and Morris allegedly pressured Viljoen to release share certificates valued at R10 million to Morris and others whilst the investigation was ongoing in order for the listing to continue as it was in its final stages.

There was allegedly also a threat to launch a negative media campaign against Umuthi to derail the planned listing on the LSE.

Viljoen confirmed that he made a decision at the time to comply with the order from the officer and avoid negative publicity as a threat that may cause damage to existing shareholders.

Viljoen, legally issued shares to the value of R10 million to Morris and his cohorts whilst the so-called investigation from Soobramoney’s intelligence office was being conducted.

The State claims that on March 19, 2021, at around 3.09pm Soobramoney received R20,000 from Morris as a reward for facilitating the transfer of the shares.

This transaction of R20,000 was confirmed through a Section 205 subpoena. When approached to provide a warning statement, Soobramoney refused, leading to the issuance and execution of a warrant for his arrest for extortion and corruption charges.

Soobramoney told the court that his refusal to issue a warning statement was nothing more than exercising his right to remain silent.

Subsequent investigations from the company revealed that Connie van Nieuwkerk and Morris had fraudulently sold and traded shares in Umuthi prior to listing without ever transferring the funds to the company.

It is confirmed that Soobramoney had full knowledge of these facts and still proceeded to assist Morris to open a false case against Viljoen leading to his arrest and shortly after withdrawal of the charges by the State. This also led to the eventual delisting of Umuthi.

Morris formed an activist group called Umuthi Action Group which amplified false claims of people committing suicide due to the losses suffered after supposedly investing in Umuthi. They claimed to have invested in the company but had not received shares.

A forensic audit later revealed that 99% of the members of Umuthi Action Group and specifically Morris had not invested in the company or its subsidiaries. It is alleged that Morris had his target on the FCA to claim an insurance payout and promised his group over 100 million GBP for “negligence” from Umuthi and the FCA by allowing the listing to continue.

The false claims made by Morris and his group contributed to the suspension and delisting of Umuthi on the LSE. This now forms the basis of a R340 million damages claim against the State, Soobramoney and Morris.

Fraud and corruption charges have been opened against Barbara Pollard and Mariette Linde who shared funds from fraudulent sales with Connie van Nieuwkerk and continuously touted shares to the group formed by Morris even after Umuthi’s suspension.

“The arrest of Mr Soobramoney is the first of several likely arrests related to the sabotage of the Umuthi listing in London,” said Viljoen.

“We are now in the process of seeking the extradition of Morris to South Africa so that he can face charges of fraud and corruption. The wheels of justice may move slow, but at least they are now moving.”

Viljoen concluded that he views Morris to be nothing more than “A man of straw”.

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The case was filed against IPS Amit Lodha in 2022.

The ECIR is filed against Amit Lodha as well as his wife for accumulating disproportionate assets.

IPS Amit Lodha, who was the inspiration behind Netflix’s hit show Khakee, could face strict action by the authorities, after the ED (Enforcement Directorate) filed an ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report) against him. It is related to his disproportionate assets case, which was filed against him in December 2022. Here are all the details on the report. As per more reports, the ECIR is filed against Amit Lodha as well as his wife for accumulating disproportionate assets through misusing his position and gaining money with unethical practices. The officer is currently under investigation. The case has been filed against him under the sections of 13 (1) (B) and 13 (2), and the sections of Prevention of Corruption Act 1998. Around 3 months ago, the Special Surveillance Unit (SVU) had sent a proposal to the state government, where it sought permission to prosecute Amit Lodha, if the reports are to be believed. It has not been granted yet. More reports state the then Additional Chief Secretary of the Home Department had not sent the permission file to the Law Department. Instead, it was reportedly sent to the Advocate General for opinion.

According to more information given, Amit Lodha is a 1998 batch officer from the Bihar cadre. He is posted as an IG (Inspector General) at the State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB). The disproportionate case was filed against him by the SVU on December 7, 2022. The reason behind the case filing was that he reportedly took a fee for the Khakee series. Since he is posted in the police department, he cannot sign a financial contract with any institution or a company. Allegedly, Amit Lodha signed a contract of Rs 50 lakh for the show. He was suspended by the authorities for the same, the reports stated.

IPS Amit Lodha gained fame when he caught Gabbar Singh of Bihar and put him behind bars in 2006. Gangster Gabbar Singh, whose real name is Ashok Mahato, terrorised the Sheikhpura town in the state. Amit Lodha is known to have solved several high-profile cases, added reports.