RESOLUTION ON THE ROLE OF EDUCATION IN COMBATING
MISMANAGEMENT AND CORRUPTION
The Fourth World Congress of Education International (EI), held in Porto Alegre, Brazil,
from 22 to 26 July 2004:
- Notes that mismanagement and corruption tend to develop at several levels in our societies, in
both the private and public sectors, with an adverse impact on the economy, social activities and
education.
- Recalls the major scandals - recently brought to the notice of the public - that have erupted
in several multinational companies (unsound investments, embezzlement, false financial
statements, etc.) with particularly negative consequences for employment and pensions of many
workers within the education sector.
- Recalls the situations witnessed in a number of developing countries where loans granted by
international or regional financial institutions for projects, which are poorly planned and/or
mismanaged and/or misappropriated for personal motives, have much too often resulted
in resounding failures. The serious financial consequences burden the economies of these
countries for many years, increasing their unproductive public deficits, which put a break on the
development of education.
Furthermore, Congress
- Considers that in tackling the issue of mismanagement and corruption in relation to education,
two key aims should be distinguished: it is essential, first, to combat mismanagement and
corruption wherever they are present in the education sector; but education should also be used
as a means of combating corruption at all levels in our societies. Citizenship requires respect for
education as a common good and the need to give meaning to the public good which must be
common to all.
- Notes that the media often report unacceptable situations involving corrupt teachers in
educational establishments that engage in dubious practices, in countries where those in
managing positions and in responsible roles are corrupt themselves and give the example. This
situation also results from teachers' disastrous working and material conditions.
- Considers that in most cases the degree of corruption found among teachers is directly linked
to the degree of corruption of those in governing positions, of the economic and administrative
structures of the countries concerned, which implies that a successful struggle against
corruption in the education sector necessarily involves ensuring that the above-mentioned
structures function in a democratic and transparent way; countries in the North bear heavy
responsibility in the introduction of corruption in these structures.
- Considers that a precondition for successfully combating corrupt practices among teaching
staff, head teachers and education workers in general is the provision of adequate salaries
enabling all education personnel to make a decent living from their regular work; that
transparent and democratic functioning of decision structures is essential if corruption is to be
stopped
- Considers that mismanagement and corruption in the education sector can be eradicated or
significantly reduced through a genuine social dialogue in a concerted framework in which
representative trade unions are heard and recognised by the authorities. This framework of
dialogue and/or negotiation, whose operation is based on transparency and democracy.
- Considers that making teachers and education staff more aware of the issues involved in
corrupt practices and their harmful effects is something that should be carried out in the context
of these workers' initial and further training and should form part of their professional ethics.
- Considers, lastly, that the activities aimed at increasing students and pupils' awareness of these
issues should be carried out through programmes which are effectively integrated in human
rights education and education to citizenship, that stress that money is not the only value that
should motivate our society, that laws must be enforced, and that the corrupt must be severely
punished.
Congress therefore:
- Calls on the international and regional financial institutions to consult all stakeholders,
particularly teachers' unions, when drawing up, implementing and monitoring any projects
financed with the aim of preventing mismanagement and corruption.
- Calls on the Executive Board to pursue its discussions with intergovernmental organisations
such as UNESCO, the World Bank and the OECD in order to tackle these serious problems and put
together proposals for remedial action within the framework of an inter-agency group with the
active involvement of EI.
- Calls on all affiliates to give attention, as a matter of some priority, to mismanagement and
corruption issues in their respective countries and to include these issues in professional and
trade union training activities.
- Calls on the Secretariat to strengthen EI's links with the NGO Transparency International and to
examine the possibility of developing joint programmes with it.
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