USAID Curbs Corruption in National Education

For many years, Guinea’s education system was beset by widespread corruption. National school examinations in particular became a theater for corrupt and unfair practices, with teachers taking bribes to pass students or provide test questions beforehand. It is estimated that more than half the students in the country paid bribes in order to pass to the next level, though few of the students understood the subject matter.

At the request of the Minister of Education, USAID launched an initiative in early 2007, through its project Faisons Ensemble, to reform Guinea’s education system. The goal is to return Guinea’s national examinations to a fair and transparent process that rewards study and academic achievement.

Faison Ensemble’s first goal was to establish a comprehensive code of conduct for the country’s educational system. In 2007, the code and other reforms emerged from a USAID-sponsored workshop of education professionals to explore problems and possible solutions in the school system.
The major goal of the code is to establish fair and credible relationships among all participants in education and to assure transparent national school exams in Guinea. The code put forward rules of ethical behaviors for students, teachers, security guards, and others.

 

The initiative had an immediate impact. It effectively rooted out corruption in the administration of exams; the national 2007 exams proceeded in an exemplary fashion. The pass rate for the exams fell from over 70 percent to 18 percent.

To ensure the same success this year, Faisons Ensemble, with USAID support, organized a second workshop in August 2008. The Minister of Education, the national directors of education, and over 70 other high-level education officials attended. The workshop reviewed lessons learned from 2007 and implemented new plans to make the 2008 exams even more transparent. The workshop also reinforced best practices among the parties and served as a starting point for the school year.

The effectiveness of the code became apparent when the Minister of Education ordered the re-writing of the brevet exam (the national exam that students must pass to enter university) following the disclosure that the integrity of the exam had been compromised and copies were being sold. While the news was indeed discouraging, the Minister’s action demonstrated a courage and political will for reform absent in previous years.

In 2008,in another educational initiative, Faisons Ensemble launched a major project in the provincial capital of N’Zerekore to educate schoolgirls in physics, mathematics, chemistry, French, and biology. The program’s goal is to prevent young girls from dropping out of school due to lack of financial support, or pregnancy. Records indicate that 25 percent of Guinean girls fail exams and must repeat classes, as opposed to 14 percent for boys. Girls also have a higher dropout rate than boys.

The program selected 60 girls from four different rural schools around Guinea, and provided them with basic education, not only in major academic areas like French and mathematics but also in the prevention of HIV/AIDS .

The girls attend classes three times a week for a total of 18 hours, and also receive a stipend for food expenses and medical assistance. USAID also provides the girls and teachers with the necessary educational materials, such as pencils notebooks, and dictionaries. The results have been encouraging. None of the girls enrolled in the program dropped out of school, and they are prepared to take the brevet exam. Their parents also became more engaged in following and assisting in their daughters’ education.