Corruption in education systems: Challenge yet to overcome
จากไชต์: Office of The National Anti - Corruption Commission (ONACC)
จำนวนผู้เข้าชม: 1482
Corruption in education systems has allegedly occurred time and again in regards to varied school businesses, ranging from school lunch and milk distributions to construction projects, textbooks and educational hardware procurement projects and the admission of an additional number of students at schools in exchange for payoffs. Other types of corruption allegedly involved teachers who spent hours doing something irrelevant to their assigned tasks at schools or were late to work at schools or called it a day before due time, the purchase of research papers in return for academic promotion as well as the monopolistic powers and nepotistic networks of personnel in universities.
Cases of corruption in the Thai education systems under care of the Ministry of Education may fall into three major categories. That refers to the corruption in policy matters, primarily caused by influences of business politicians, the corruption by individuals who may have perpetrated it either intentionally or unknowingly and opportunities which may practically provide loopholes for corruption due to inefficiency in auditing by the State Audit Office.
Assoc. Prof. Anusorn Tamajai, a former expert at the Education Council, a former director of the Office of Public Policy Development attached to the Prime Minister's Office and the former chairman of a subcommittee on the planning of national education, issued an article online to express that Thailand is facing a crisis of corruption in education systems. It is weakening the Thais and undermining human resources development. For that reason, corruption in education systems has yet to be prevented by amending the budgetary and financial systems provided for education.
One of eight solutions to the corruption problems proposed by Assoc. Prof. Anusorn is to apply the Demand-side Financing method with students being the ones who make demands whilst the Ministry of Education should consider demands which may be raised by schools rather than the viewpoints of executive officials of the ministry. Besides, educational welfare funding should be provided for students through their families.
For instance, the procurement of food under the school lunch project is yet to see to it that the food will be of good quality and
have nutritional values necessary for all students. He remarked that the education systems, which could significantly accelerate economic development on a sustainable basis, should be improved in three dimensions. That refers to the quantitative dimension, qualitative dimension and parity dimension.
Assoc. Prof. Anusorn suggested that the education crisis could be in part solved by the distribution of powers and budgets for education to varied localities and the reduction in the lines of command at the Ministry of Education in order to streamline the relevant operations and cut the bureaucratic red tape. Besides, effects of the Ministry of Education's policies and measures on all students should be thoroughly taken into account whilst all parties concerned should be allowed to participate in the implementation of those policies and measures.
The Ministry of Education has continually taken efforts to solve problems involving corruption in the education systems which may call for effectual preventive measures, however, taken in slow progress. The Ministry of Education is applying Phase 2 of the anti-corruption action plans between 2023 and 2027 and the five-year, corruption-preventing plans from 2023 until 2027 under which the ministry's projects and activities are driven in line with the national strategies and purposes of curtailing corruption in all sectors of the ministry.
The anti-corruption action plans for fiscal 2023 will be carried out by the Ministry of Education in two dimensions, referring to the imbedding and promoting of public awareness against corruption and the cultural behaviors of honesty which 80 percent of all children and youths are expected to uphold and observe whilst corruption cases are speculated to reduce by 10 percent and complaints against the ministry's personnel to reduce by 10 percent as well. That may be considered proactive measures which could yield positive results in the foreseeable future.
The Ministry of Education has instructed all administrative officials responsible for schools to carry out any project or activity in a thoroughly transparent manner as part of the corruption-preventing plans. Preventive and auditing measures against corruption at schools will be taken to a maximum extent with legal action being immediately taken against alleged culprits.
Many corruption cases, which were allegedly perpetrated by administrative officials at schools, may have been alerted by STRONG Club members who cohesively watch over their neighborhoods. For instance, a former director of Baan Tha Mai School in Tha Chana district of Surat Thani province was arrested on duty-negligence and severe disciplinary charges pertaining to the school lunch project, an electrical system procurement project and a road construction project in the premises of the school. Remarkably, some organized corruption was alleged over a futsal pitch construction project at a school in the northeastern region.
Another type of corruption that has usually made the front-page headlines such as that in 2023 involved the acceptance of payoffs in exchange for the admission of students at preferable schools whereas Office of the National Anti-Corruption Commission Thailand (NACC) has watched out and tracked down suspected culprits every year.
The provincial branches of the NACC Office nationwide have been instructed to keep close watch on the alleged corruption over accepted kickbacks at schools whilst the Ministry of Education has assigned the Office of Basic Education Commission to see to it that the admission of students in 2023 will be provided in honest, transparent fashion. The ministry will look into complaints of such corruption and take maximum punitive action against those who may have been allegedly involved.
As part of the preventive plans, the Ministry of Education has declared a resolution against corruption and a No Gift policy under the theme of MOE TRUST & Zero Tolerance whilst putting forward the measures to create and promote the cultural behaviors of honesty and the proud awareness against corruption among children and youths. However, those policies and measures are yet to be evaluated for success.
The Ministry of Education has cooperated with the NACC Office to promote an innovation for transparency via an anti-corruption curriculum which has been developed by the NACC Office to create and disseminate relevant knowledge systematically and efficiently.
Besides, the NACC has planned to create honest societies to help prevent corruption on a sustainable basis with a focus on the adaptation of human behaviors by promoting the awareness for honesty and against corruption among the targeted groups of children and youths who will become a unified, driving energy to fight corruption in the future. In the meantime, the existing systems in the bureaucratic circles will be adjusted to the innovation against corruption, be thoroughly examinable, open to public participation and tip-offs whilst keeping abreast with any dynamics of corruption.
In the meantime, suppression measures against corruption have been strengthened and enhanced for the sake of efficiency and operational rapidity whilst relevant legal measures have been improved for the promotion of justice. A 20-year objective has been laid out to the extent that Thailand will be completely freed from corruption by 2037 in regards to the CPI of this country which should be among the top 20 with no less than 73 points.
Corruption problems cannot be solved by talking but have to be eliminated with the increased awareness as well as the values of honesty which could warrant a maximum success in suppressing corruption. It remains to be seen to what extent the Ministry of Education's anti-corruption plans will curtail the corruption and prove that the Thais, given their unwavering determination, can eventually combat it. To say the least, the ones who will profit the most are children and youths who will grow up to be law-abiding adults. Given a transparent and equitable environment, the country's education systems will be sustainably free of corruption.
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