Editorial: Back-to-school; Corruption gets high marks.

As this daily reported yesterday, Massi Gams added that: "If there’s one environment that must remain healthy in all circumstances, it’s the education sector, because it’s the moulds and shapes tomorrow’s leaders and citizens. If we want a corruption-free Cameroon, we have to invest today to spare the education sector from this gangrene”.

According to Rev Dr Massi Gams, the start of the new school year is usually a time when acts of corruption in the education sector multiply. 

He regretted that the face of corruption in the education sector is complex and varied, depending on the time of year.

He could not be faulted for telling the bitter truth. Corruption in the education sector is a major obstacle to realising the universal right to education and to achieving development. 

Unfortunately, education has been rated by CONAC as "one of the most corrupt sectors in Cameroon".

As Transparency International has noted: "Corruption undermines the quality and availability of education services and distorts access to quality education. This disproportionally affects the poor, rendering disadvantaged children reliance on substandard education services where little learning can take place. It affects virtually all aspects of education, from school infrastructure to teacher salaries and academic curricula."

Because of corruption, research has indicated that resources are pilfered, resulting in scarcity of learning and research equipment, poor-quality school facilities, the hiring of fewer and underpaid teachers, larger class sizes and increased workloads for teachers.

Scholars are also unanimous that "corruption increases the cost of education and leads to lower academic standards, resulting in distorted test scores and school rankings, and lower satisfaction with the public education system". 

As a result, corruption undermines the public’s trust in the education system and its usefulness, leading to higher dropouts and lower enrolment rates.

Lack of resources, low quality education or poorly qualified personnel in public education institutions may also drive students who can afford it to look for private alternatives, exacerbating inequalities and undermining equal access to education and personal development opportunities.

The vice, especially in higher education, also affects enrolment rates in the university and contributes to lowering of academic standards.

In the vein, it lowers the recognition of degrees and certificates, ultimately undermining students’ qualifications and prospects for employment.

It has also been established that corruption in education opens the door for a “brain-drain” at higher levels of education, forcing education professionals to leave an institution, region or country to increase their income, improve their working conditions, or increase their professional development opportunities.

For instance, there are reports that over 3,000 Cameroonian teachers migrated to Canada last year for greener pastures. Sources say they migrated not only because of poor working conditions but also because some, who were teaching in government schools were being owed. 

The harm corruption does to education affects numerous other sectors of the society, including, as some researchers have documented, "social and economic development, resulting in poorly trained doctors, judges, engineers or underqualified people running the economy".

What is the solution or at least how to curb the soaring trend of education corruption in Cameroon?

The CONAC Chair recently launched a robust corruption-free back-to-school campaign, ahead of the start of the new school year on September 9. 

Given the spike in corrupt practices, he explained that it is "an opportunity for us to call on the various players in this sector not to remain silent in the face of abuses of which they may be victims or witnesses during this pivotal back-to-school period”.

He advised members of the public to judiciously use the CONAC "toll free number, 1517, and the WhatsApp number, 658 26 26 82, to denounce corrupt acts and practices".

The Guardian Post, which in its community service initiative has also launched a campaign for interrupted return to school, especially in the restive North West and South West Regions, salutes CONAC's campaign.

But as we have said before, CONAC needs to be empowered with the power to arrest and prosecute suspects, otherwise these initiatives will pale into cosmetic glossing, given the spike of corruption in the education sector in the country.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue N0:3220 of Thursday, September 5, 2024