Feature storyEducation authorities adopt Integrity Clubs for all their schools in South Kivu2018–2023Impact stories2023–2024By CERC
Towards a law to teach integrity in every school in the country
Integrity Clubs work in 150 schools. To reach every student in the country, CERC and the African Parliamentarians’ Network Against Corruption wrote two bills – one on Integrity Clubs, one on an integrity education course – and took them to the National Assembly in April 2024.
Projects end; laws stay. Integrity Clubs have shown, school after school, that students who learn integrity get problems fixed. But a project reaches the schools it can fund, and only for as long as it lasts. For every Congolese student to learn integrity, it has to be written into the law and into the curriculum. That is why CERC turned to Parliament.
From 20 schools to a national model
CERC launched its first Integrity Clubs in 20 secondary schools of Uvira in December 2017. By 2022 there were 204 clubs in 150 schools of South Kivu and Kinshasa, with 2,250 students trained to monitor their schools – and one problem in three they reported was fixed.
On 28 July 2022, the education authorities of South Kivu signed a memorandum of understanding with CERC to bring Integrity Clubs into every secondary school of the province. An agreement covers a province and depends on the people who sign it. A law covers the whole country.
Written with those who will apply it
In 2022, CERC began working with the African Parliamentarians’ Network Against Corruption (APNAC DRC) on two legislative proposals to bring Integrity Clubs and integrity education into the education system.
The texts were drafted with education specialists and civil society organisations, and tested in consultations in Kinshasa and Bukavu in 2023 with 97 policymakers: more than 50 education officials – among them the Secretary General for Education, the provincial ministries and directorates of education, the coordinators of faith-based schools, the Agency for the Prevention and Fight against Corruption (APLC) and the Observatory of Corruption Monitoring and Professional Ethics (OSCEP) – civil society organisations such as CONEPT, and 10 parliamentarians, who expressed broad support. The same year, the APNAC DRC members of the National Assembly endorsed the initiative.
What the two bills provide
The first bill establishes Integrity Clubs in every secondary school: spaces for civic awareness led by elected students, who promote good practice, transparency and ethical values at school, and check that their school delivers what it promises.
The second introduces an integrity education course into the national curriculum, so that every student learns about ethics, good governance and civic responsibility, and how corruption works and how to resist it.
To the National Assembly
In April 2024, CERC and APNAC DRC took the bills to the National Assembly, and called on citizens and civil society to support them. By working directly with members of parliament, CERC wants integrity education not only to be taught where a project pays for it, but to be guaranteed by law for every student – the foundation for a new generation of citizens committed to integrity.
Why it matters now
The following year showed how fragile project funding is: in 2025, the closure of USAID cancelled the scale-up that was to bring Integrity Clubs to every secondary school of four provinces. A law does not depend on a donor. Parliament, for its part, has shown it can act against corruption: on 28 September 2026, the National Assembly declared the government’s anti-corruption bill admissible.
CERC keeps calling on members of parliament to put the two bills on the Assembly’s agenda – so that teaching integrity becomes the rule in every school of the country.
About CERC
The Centre de Recherche sur l’Anti-Corruption (CERC) is a Congolese non-governmental organisation founded in April 2017 in South Kivu. With young people at its heart, CERC works with schools, communities, public institutions and partners to promote transparency, accountability and integrity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It has held special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since 2021. Learn more: Who we are.
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