DevelopmentCheck: 55 schools held to account

Since 2017, CERC has been testing an innovative approach to build a culture of integrity and value for money in secondary schools. Through Integrity Clubs in 55 schools in Uvira and Bukavu, more than 800 students engaged with their school management boards to improve education services.

With the DevelopmentCheck app, students, parents and the community obtained key information on their schools – water and toilets, libraries, number of pupils per class, teachers’ qualifications – as well as on school budgets and spending. The project supported the government’s free primary and secondary education reform by making schools more accountable.

At the Itara Institute, fifteen student monitors have been following their school since February 2018. They alerted the management to overcrowded classrooms, broken desks and only three toilets for 590 students. Thanks to their dialogue with the management, the parents’ committee and teachers, the desks were repaired, three new classrooms were built and a block of eight latrines, with separate toilets for girls, was started.

Between 2017 and 2020, 810 students in 54 Integrity Clubs were trained and helped fix an average of 32% of the problems they reported.

« Thanks to the joint working group meetings held in our school, the whole process has become clearer and more transparent. »

Kahindo Ndjungu, head of ITIP Uvira

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