The phenomenon of corruption and the behaviors that lack integrity in the education system affect the right to education and the level of tolerance of corruption in society increases. The students, being daily in contact with representatives of educational institutions, see and assimilate examples of behaviors that lack integrity if such situations persist in educational institutions. The largest number of cases of corruption are not reported for fear of revenge on children and students, shows the study “Mapping of Corruption Risks in the Education Sector” that was carries out by the Association for Efficient and Responsible Governance.
According to the study, 41% of the parents would not pay anything if they are told by someone to do this, would not take part in the collection of funds and acts of corruption in the education system. “This should alarm us as we have 41% of persons who would not take part in this phenomenon, but they take part in order to avoid the exposure of their children to risks and for these not to become undesirable in the educational environment,” Ala Revenco, executive director of the Association “Solidary Parents”, stated in a conference entitled “Prevention and diminution of corruption in the education system of the Republic of Moldova. Proposals for new anticorruption strategy”.
Lawyer Cristina Ciubotaru, anticorruption expert, said that when speaking about informal payments, it is very important to take the child out of the money equation. “The children must not take money from parents and give it to someone from the academic community. When the child knows that they took money from the mother or father and gave it to the teacher, the principal, the parent association, a classmate who collects the money, up to the university they already know how money is gathered and divided and what advantages you enjoy if you keep it for a week and give it later. These are the future swindlers, but they would not want such a fate and the grownups shouldn’t involve them therefore,” explained the lawyer.
“If you go and pay bribe for your child to be admitted to a particular kindergarten or school, this is a sign that new examples of behaviors and habits are needed. But these will work only when we have persons who will act as role models and will try to break this vicious circle,” said Janine Baudach, project manager and representative of GIZ Moldova.
Mihaela Gherasim, communications specialist, noted that corruption in the education system in most of its forms of manifestation forms part of the widespread petty corruption that influences the citizens and these, losing confidence in the state institutions, democracy and meritocracy, create stereotypes according to which any public sector employee is a person predisposed to acts of corruption.
The conducting of awareness-raising campaigns centering on integrity, increasing of the level of education and digitization of the education system are among the proposed solutions that can prevent corruption in the education sector. The recommendations formulated in the conference were transmitted to the responsible state institutions for designing the strategic documents in the field.
The event was held as part of the project “Strengthening the Rule of Law and Anticorruption Mechanisms in the Republic of Moldova” that is implemented by the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and is financed by the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
