Code of conduct on school management (edu) Dec. 14/07

A Code of Conduct, which is part of a national campaign to eradicate corruption in the management of schools as well as instil anti-corruption measures in the minds of schoolchildren, is currently before the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education and the Ghana Education Service.
When adopted, the Code of Conduct, which is a proposal submitted by the International Campaign for Corruption-Free Schools, will serve as a guideline to educate schoolchildren in their formative stages on the need to stay clear of corruption.
This was made known by the Director of the International Campaign for Corruption-Free Schools, Mr Baffour Dokyi Amoa, at a press conference in Accra.
The Corruption-Free Schools campaign was launched in Ghana in 2003 by Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, then a Minister for Education.
Currently, there are 14 fun clubs in primary, secondary and tertiary schools across the country.
The campaign programme has also been extended to such other African countries as Nigeria, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Togo and Burkina Faso.
Mr Amoa said to fight corruption in schools, it behoved society and indeed governments to tackle the conditions that promoted corruption head-on.
He mentioned some of the conditions in schools as the number of applicants in relation to the quota to be admitted, examinations which were due before full coverage of syllabus, challenges of supervision in the face of poor remuneration and the lack of/poor incentives for teachers.
Mr Amoa mentioned other factors as competition among schools for high performance and recognition, pressure put on students by parents to perform, desire for high grades that did not commensurate with output and the lack of social security and poverty.
He said the campaign provided the platform for pupils and students within the sub-region to debate among themselves on issues relating to corruption in schools and the way forward.
The General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana, Reverend Fred Deegbe, said there was the need to tackle the issue of corruption from the formative stages of life before the canker of corruption could be eradicated from any society.
He said corruption did not help, but rather destroyed a nation and, therefore, there was the need for all to come together to fight it, saying that “we should keep on fighting corruption like malaria till it is completely eradicated”.