12pc people pay bribe in education sector, says TIB

---

FE Report Corruption in Bangladesh's education sector still remains a 'serious hurdle' to ensuring quality education despite a slight decrease in its level this year, according to a report of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB). The local chapter of the Berlin-based Transparency International (TI) revealed Tuesday its Global Corruption Report on Education, including the Bangladesh part, at a press conference at BRAC Centre Inn in the capital. "Twelve per cent of people paid bribe in education in Bangladesh against 17 per cent globally," TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said while unveiling the findings. He said the education sector is highly vulnerable to corruption as the country lost over Tk 700 million (US$ 9.0 million) in the form of petty corruption in primary education in one year. "Yes, the level of corruption in education sector has been reduced comparatively. But, there is no scope of self-satisfaction as it still remains a key obstacle to quality education," he said. The report was released in Bangladesh as elsewhere all over the globe by the TI and the findings were arrived at through random sampling on the feedback of 114,270 respondents from 107 countries. "The Bangladesh part was based on 1,800 respondents," Mr Iftekharuzzaman said. According to the findings of the TIB's global corruption barometer, while 39 per cent of people used to pay bribes for availing education in 2007, the percentage was minimised to 15 per cent in 2010 and 14.8 per cent in 2012. The TIB executive director said corruption took place in the education sector in the form of procurement, shadow schools, ghost teachers, bribery in access to education, buying of grades, nepotism in teacher appointments, misuse of school grants for private gains, construction and infrastructure development activities. "We need to be more careful in eliminating corruption from the key sector as unethical practice could lead to emergence of incompetent future leaders and professionals," he said. He said political will and people's engagement in the system are needed to overcome the problems. "The success depends on how many citizens and civil society members we can involve in the process," he added. Putting importance on regular view-exchange sharing meetings among school management committee (SMC) members, teachers, government officials and parents, he said the SMC men at Alokdia Government Primary School at Modhupur in Tangail attained significant success in reducing the number of drop-out students to 7.0 per cent from 20 per cent. According to the report, Bangladesh stood at the third position in South Asia after Nepal (3.0 per cent) and the Maldives (3.0 per cent) while the level of corruption in education in India is much higher as 48 per cent of people fall victims to bribery followed by Pakistan (16 per cent) and Sri Lanka (13 per cent). Speaking on the occasion, member of TIB Trustee Board Syed Manzoorul Islam hailed the achievement, saying that the country needs to keep the trend going to root out corruption in education sector. "Corruption in education system cannot be accepted at all as it gives the perception among the future leaders or young citizens that corruption is socially recognised here," he said. He also suggested enhancement of budgetary allocation for taking the country's education system to the international standard. Currently, the government-allocated 2.1 per cent of the total budget is spent for education purposes against the international benchmark of 6.0 per cent. Among others, TIB deputy executive director Dr Sumaiya Khair and Deputy Programme Manager (Policy and Research) of the organisation Mohammad Hossain were present on the occasion.