Integrity Clubs are groups of pupils who check that their school delivers what it promises – and work with teachers, parents and officials to fix what does not.
204Integrity Clubs in secondary schoolsSouth Kivu and Kinshasa
3,060pupils trained as monitorsSince 2017
33%of the problems they reported fixed
150,441pupils with better school services
The problem
Corruption keeps children out of a good education
Paying for a school that should be free, teachers who do not come, schools that cannot take every child: corruption blocks access to education and erodes its quality.
Paying for a free school
Illegal fees push the poorest children out of the classroom.
Teachers who are not there
Every absent teacher means lost lessons – and a learning crisis no one sees.
Schools that leave children out
Without ramps, water or safe buildings, the most vulnerable children are left behind.
More money, too little data
The DRC raised education’s share of the national budget from 6.5% to 20% by 2020. But pupils, parents and communities lack the information to hold schools to account, and officials lack reliable school-level data to see where the money goes.
Share of the national budget for education
Our solution
How an Integrity Club works
Integrity Clubs are spaces run by pupils, where they learn and practise integrity. Without investing in bricks and mortar, CERC helps them get their schools fixed.
1
Trained
Pupils learn to gather evidence and to advocate with school officials, with integrity education manuals and monitoring guides.
2
Monitor with EduCheck
They check classrooms, latrines, water and school materials, and report what they find with the EduCheck app.
3
Talk it through
Pupils, teachers, head teachers, parents’ committees and officials meet and agree on what to do.
4
Fixed
Problems get solved: one in three of the problems pupils reported has been fixed.
Data that works for everyone
For education officials
Reliable, real-time data from each school: proof that materials arrived and are used, problems corrected in time, results measured.
For pupils
A voice and the skills to improve their own learning conditions – and safe, decent schools to learn in.
From 20 clubs in Uvira to 204 in two provinces
Integrity Clubs running
40%of club leaders are girls
15%come from marginalised groups
384teachers and 181 head teachers supported
Impact story · Institut Itara, Luvungi
3 toilets for 590 pupils? The Integrity Club acted.
Fifteen pupil monitors documented overcrowded classrooms, broken desks and only three toilets for 590 pupils, then worked with the head, the parents’ committee and the teachers. Three new classrooms were built and a block of eight modern latrines, with separate toilets for girls, went up.
The programme directly supported 3,060 pupils, 384 teachers and 181 head teachers from 204 secondary schools in Uvira, Bukavu and Kinshasa.
Together they made drinking water clean and accessible, made schools safe and open to children at risk of exclusion, got teachers back in class and even sorted out rubbish collection in town. Their work has benefited more than 500,000 people through better services and infrastructure.
534 pupils (271 boys and 263 girls) in 39 workshops, and 89 teachers and head teachers in 24 schools, told us what makes young people monitor their schools – and what stops them (June–July 2021). The findings are rated against the six OECD-DAC evaluation criteria.
RelevanceSatisfactoryPupils understand integrity and want to be agents of change; the model gives them a way to act.
CoherenceModerately unsatisfactoryStrong where teachers and head teachers are involved; weak with education services and local authorities.
EffectivenessModerately satisfactoryNew skills, more confidence and awareness of their rights – but little access to information.
EfficiencyModerately unsatisfactorySupport run from too far away, visits that stopped and allowances not paid.
ImpactNot ratedA one-off study cannot measure long-term change, and results were not yet tracked.
SustainabilityModerately unsatisfactoryFew long-term mechanisms, families little involved, former monitors not followed.
Motivators
What moves pupils to act
The wish to be an agent of change
Personal development: 9 of 15 new monitors in one group named new knowledge and skills first
Prestige and belonging to the club
Teachers and head teachers who get involved
Barriers
What holds them back
Fear: girls of sexual harassment, boys of arrest
Families who discourage them
Distance, no transport, no food after school, rain
Services and projects that do not cooperate
Next
What the evaluation recommends
Closer, more regular support for every club
Safety and anti-harassment training for monitors, teachers and parents
Families and local authorities involved from the start
Centre de Recherche sur l’Anti-Corruption (CERC) · info@cerc.cd · www.cerc.cd
CERC is a Congolese non-governmental organisation with special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since 2021.
Exaucée
CERC’s assistant
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