Kinshasa and Bukavu, September 2022 – Under the Students Acting for Accountability and Quality of Education project, funded by the Global Partnership for Education through Education Out Loud (Operational Component 2), with Oxfam IBIS, CERC has trained 278 teachers and 138 school principals from 150 secondary schools in Kinshasa and Bukavu in integrity building and anti-corruption measures in the school system.
Launched in early 2022 in six municipalities of South Kivu and six of Kinshasa, the project aims for students, especially girls, to receive accountable, inclusive and equitable quality education.
Over three days, participants learned the integrity-building approach in schools and the teaching methodology of the integrity education course introduced by CERC. They also learned how to coach students who monitor their school's infrastructure and services, and how to respond when those students bring problems to light. The trainings are designed to introduce all schoolchildren to the values of integrity and accountability.
At the end of the training, participants demonstrated a broad understanding of the approach, and memoranda of understanding were signed between CERC and the partner schools. They pave the way for 150 Integrity Clubs and the integrity education course for 2,250 students aged 14 to 19.
The training builds on a commitment made in July. On 28 July 2022, at a consultation workshop in Bukavu with 41 participants – representatives of the Ministry of Education, parents' associations, teachers' unions, education experts and NGOs – the Ministry of Primary, Secondary and Technical Education, through the Provincial Directorate of Education of South Kivu 1, signed a memorandum of understanding with CERC to integrate Integrity Clubs into all secondary schools in South Kivu.
Teachers have a multiplier effect. In the first year of CERC's Integrity Clubs in Uvira, the teachers and club leaders it trained went on to train 240 other club members and more than 1,600 students in other schools.
Next, the teachers and principals will support the students of the new clubs. These students will be trained as community integrity monitors, follow their school's infrastructure and services and report what they find on EduCheck, the web and mobile app CERC launched in March 2022.
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Read also: Consultation workshop on integrity education in secondary schools