Ethics and corruption in education
Corruption has not spared education - from financial embezzlement linked to school infrastructure to favouritism in the recruitment or promotion of teachers.
Fighting corruption enables governments to strengthen their educational systems, which is a precondition for attaining the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, which include quality education for all.
Since its inception, IIEP’s ethics and anti-corruption programme has strengthened planning strategies to foster a culture of ethics and combat corruption in the education sector. It promotes transparency and accountability at the policy level, ensuring these principles are integrated into education systems.
Our experts support UNESCO Member States in strengthening their skills in these areas through in-country and online training programmes, research and technical support missions.
Our training courses
IIEP offers training courses on transparency, accountability, and anticorruption measures and tools, typically in response to requests from UNESCO Member States, development partners, or civil society organizations.
Over the years, IIEP has trained more than 3,000 people in various subjects related to ethics and corruption in education.
IIEP has also produced training materials on anti-corruption strategies.
ICT tools for improving transparency and accountability in education
Discover our new interactive map featuring innovations developed by Education Out Loud grantees to see how government and civil society organizations use digital tools to improve transparency and accountability in education.
Our research
With over 40 publications on ethics and corruption in education, IIEP documents efficient strategies for promoting transparency and accountability in various educational planning and management areas, including funding, teacher management, public procurement and exams.
Our recent projects
Our technical support to countries
IIEP provides concrete solutions to help UNESCO Member States combat corruption in education, including corruption risk assessments, the implementation of public expenditure tracking surveys, and the development of codes of conduct.
Assessment of corruption risks in education
IIEP evaluates corruption risks in a country's education sector, including pre-school, primary, secondary, and higher education, as well as technical and vocational training (TVET). Based on field experiences, IIEP has developed a methodology to adapt to the context of each country.
Corruption risk assessments undertaken by IIEP include:
- Pre-school teaching and TVET in Georgia, at the request of the Ministry of Education
- The education sector in Guinea, at the request of the National Anti-Corruption Agency (only available in French)
- The higher education sector in Georgia, at the request of the Prime Minister
- The whole education sector of Kosovo*, at the request of the United Nations Development Programme
- The whole education sector of Serbia and Ukraine in the context of initiatives led by the OECD
*All references to Kosovo are made in the context of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999).
Public expenditure tracking surveys
IIEP strengthens the capacity of national teams to conceive and implement public expenditure tracking surveys to trace funding flows intended for education and measure the rate of waste.
Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Ghana, South Africa and Uganda have benefited all from IIEP's support on these issues.
Codes and charters of ethics and conduct
IIEP supports UNESCO Member States involved in launching or revising their teacher codes of conduct or Charter of Ethics and has published a toolkit to guide them in the process.
A few examples:
- Technical expertise for the adoption of an Ethics Charter in Montenegro
- Support for the creation and implementation of a teacher code of conduct in Kuwait
- Support for the drafting of a code of conduct in Laos PDR
IIEP has also produced a teacher code of conduct map including 89 countries.
Residential training courses and study trips
We also deliver tailor-made training in countries that request it and study trips to foster experience-sharing between countries.
on ‘Integrity, ethics, and measures to fight corruption in higher education’, in Uzbekistan.
with political officials from Kosovo and Montenegro on the theme of integrity in higher education.
for delegations from seven Asian countries, around the My School initiative.
Our expert
Muriel Poisson is the acting Team Leader for IIEP’s team on Knowledge Knowledge Generation and Mobilization (KGeM). In this capacity, she coordinates and develops the foresight, research, communication, publication, and library functions of the Institute. She is also managing IIEP’s new research project ‘Using digital tools to promote transparency and accountability,’ as well as capacity-building activities targeting Civil Society Organisations.
In addition, she is the task manager of the Institute’s capacity-building programme on Ethics and Corruption in Education. She coordinated several international research projects on related issues, including open school data, open government in education, and teacher codes of conduct. She trained more than 3,000 people in the area and provided technical assistance to national teams in charge of developing an integrity risk assessment, a public expenditure tracking survey, or a teacher code of conduct. She is also managing ETICO, a dynamic clearinghouse on transparency and accountability issues in education.
Prior to this, she was involved in the preparation of studies on non-formal education in Asia and on education in cities. She participated in the organization of meetings on curriculum change for the International Bureau of Education (IBE) in Geneva. She was also involved in activities led by UNESCO within the framework of the Dakar follow-up as assistant to the Assistant Director-General for Education. Finally, she acted as Team Leader a.i. of IIEP’s Research and Development team from 2014 to 2017.
Muriel has authored a number of articles and books, including: ‘Corrupt Schools, Corrupt Universities: What Can Be Done?’
Education
- PhD in Education, Université de Picardie Jules-Verne (co dir. Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne), France
- Graduated from Sciences Po Bordeaux (Public Service Section), France
- BA in History, Université Bordeaux Montaigne, France
Publications
- Corruption Risk Assessment of the Georgian Preschool and Technical and Vocational Education Sectors: Integrity Assessment. 2022.
- Developing Open School Data Policies: Basic Principles. 2021.
- Open Government in Education: A Conceptual Framework. 2021.
- Open School Data: What Planners Need to Know. 2021.
- ETICO. Programme de renforcement des capacités sur l’éthique et la corruption dans l’éducation. 2021.
- OECD Reviews of integrity in education: Ukraine. 2017.
- Corruption-risk assessment in the Kosovo education sector: findings and recommendations. 2015.
- Consequences of corruption in education and implications for economic growth and development. 2014.
- Corruption in the education sector. 2014.
- International standards and national regulatory frameworks to realize the right to education. 2013.