Combating Education Corruption

By: Professor. Hossam Badrawi

Many studies conducted in the past decade highlighted the negative impact of corruption on the economic, political, and social development of nations. The studies revealed that corruption raises the cost of agreements and decreases the efficiency and quality of services, deforms the decision-making process, and brings down social values. Therefore, recent studies underlined the effect of corruption on providing services, including education. Although it seems difficult to precisely measure corruption in the state’s various sectors, yet we can assume it is a major phenomenon. For example, education is affected by such phenomenon in three ways:

A- Education is affected by the pressure of corruption on public resources. Consequently, it affects the education budget which represents part of public spending in most world countries.

B- Corruption affects education through that way it influences the cost, volume, and quality of educational services.

C- The effect of education corruption on the conscience and culture of teacher, students, and family is long lasting. It is negatively reflected on the performance of individuals and graduates throughout their professional careers.

In fact, the budget allocated for education, the huge number of participants in the educational activities, the monopoly practiced by governmental education in most of the world countries, and the estimated relationship between civil servants and those working in the private sector especially the education sector are all factors that lead to a number of relationships between the state-as a sponsor- and the citizens. These relationships influence almost every family in the society. Thus, corruption in such relationships has enormous effect on development and social stability in addition to the effect on education as explained in this book.

Poverty and low payments of civil servants are part of the main reasons behind corruption. Therefore, the more poor a country, the more it would suffer from what is known as minor corruption which could be defined as the type of corruption with less financial dealings. In some extremely poor countries, this type could be considered as normal behavior or expected method to receive services unlike the bigger form of corruption which is everywhere. This type of corruption exists in the upper classes of the decision-making posts. It is an essential part of the various powers in different societies. However, studies in this field have revealed the relation between corruption and the stability of political regimes, the existing legal frameworks, the transparency of published information, the responsibility rate of individuals and institutions, the efficiency of implementing governance methods, the importance and characteristics of foreign aid, as well as other types of relations.

A quick review of the studies conducted in this field reveals the lack of sufficient documents that would deal with the various forms of education corruption in a comprehensive and organized manner. Obviously, the war against education corruption should be considered as a top priority since it does not only affect the amount, quality, efficiency, and consequently the results of educational services, but it also affects justice in education and the confidence of the people in educational systems. Moreover, the burden of financial corruption is heavier on poorer families since it is measured by the income rate which is cut from the citizen in the form of bribes or illegal costs. In this respect those who draft educational plans face a huge challenge since they need to develop innovative ways to create effective, responsible, and transparent systems ca[able of providing efficient and just services.

In this part of the book, we aim at discussing ethics and corruption in education with the positive objective of improving decision-making and educational management, and respecting the opinion of those concerned including parents, students, teachers, directors, and others.

According to studies, there are various definitions of corruption. The main characteristics of corruption in education are possibly the same in other public sectors. In this case it could be defined as “the exploitation of a governmental post to achieve personal gains”. Such definition covers various activities such as favouritism, asking for a bribe, or the attempt to receive a bribe through blackmailing or favouritism of relatives, and squandering of public funds, etc… Another interesting definition explains the relation between corrupt behavior and its results. Such definition underlines the importance of the regularity factor. It defines corruption as “the regular exploitation of a governmental post to achieve personal gains resulting in the decline of quality or availability of funds or public services”. If we implement this definition on education we would reach the following definition of corruption “The exploitation of a governmental post or job in the educational institution to achieve personal gains that would tremendously affect attaining education or its quality or justice”. Some people believe that attaining illegal financial gains, regardless of the negative impact on education which is experienced by those working in the educational institution, should be considered as education corruption.

Some definitions differentiate between the previously mentioned minor corruption and major corruption practiced by top officials, politicians, and decision-makers. Such type includes signing contracts of major projects. These include the decisions pertaining to printing books; choosing the writers or publishing houses which costs billion of pounds in Egyptian schools. Implementing such definition on education means distinguishing between civil servants involved in major corruption as they exploit their top posts in managing the educational sector (especially the posts involving foreign aid since large sums of money could be tempting to lead to corrupt behavior) and those involved in minor corruption due to their limited effect on managing the educational sector, especially its financial resources like teachers for example. Evidently, major corruption exists on the national level. However, in the case of decentralized educational systems it could involve individuals on both the local and national levels. This is also applicable to countries where foreign aid is directed to the local level.

One of the problems that could surface while studying corruption in education is differentiating between corrupt behavior and integral one since it is very important to know the social and cultural factors in order to understand corruption. One of the examples that require analysis in differentiating between corruption and integrity is: the priority given to the graduates of a certain educational institution to join or get appointed in any of these institutions. Would this be considered as corruption or recognition of the rights of those working in this educational institution? Probably there is an unclear zone between corruption and the rights in which some people believe. The problem lies in determining such zones and it is a task we have to undertake in a transparent way.

It is possible that all the fields of planning and management could be affected by the phenomenon of corruption, particularly information systems, construction of schools, employment, and promotions (including the bonuses system), appointment of teachers, supply of equipments, supply and distribution of school books, and allocations of special expanses such as financial aid. It also includes exams, certificates, the activities practices outside the school, and others. However, the opportunities to practice such type of corruption are not equal, do not include the same persons, do not occur frequently, and do not have the same effect on the educational system. It doesn’t make a difference whether such effect pertains to human or financial costs, the system’s efficiency, or the harmful effects of corruption on moral values. Hence, it would be better to achieve gradual development through perception in order to divide the main sectors in which corruption is practiced. The reorganization of the administrative system would possibly help in solving this problem.

It would be very beneficial for readers and researchers to discuss the table dividing the main sectors in planning and management represented by (table no. 1). The table includes various forms of corrupt practices that could be spotted in each of these fields; such as favouritism, violation of criteria, embezzlement, and others. The table also covers the possible effects of such practices on resources, quality, justice, and ethics. In all cases, corrupt practices would certainly have an impact on ethics (in the sense of how children learn values and moral behaviors). Another example illustrates the difference between the direct and indirect impacts of corruption regarding the expectation of the direct impact of corrupt practices on the quality of education in the employment, promotion, and appointment of teachers in addition to their behavior. Yet, the previously mentioned practices in certain fields such as the construction of schools, supply of food, equipments, and school books, could indirectly affect quality.