Of the Ministry of Education - Curbing Corruption

October 2017

Ministry-wide Vulnerability to Corruption Assessment

of the Ministry of Education

HIGHLIGHTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY....................................... 03 PART A TEACHERS & STUDENTS ......................... 23 PART B LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT ............... 72 PART C THE WAY FORWARD............................... 102 ANNEXES.......................................................... 128 ENDNOTES........................................................ 163

Kabul-Afghanistan

TABLE OF CONTENT

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

{ 01 }

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Introduction Methodology Earlier analyses

{ 06 } { 09 } { 18 }

PART A Teachers & students

Corruption in teacher appointments

{ 24 }

Corruption in school management

{ 39 }

Teacher Training Colleges

{ 43 }

Corruption arising from the curriculum and short school year

{ 48 }

Technical Vocational Education & Training (TVET) and Adult Literacy { 53 }

Textbooks and resources for Learning

{ 61 }

Alternative schools ? Community-Based Education (CBE) and Private { 68 }

PART B Leadership & management

Leadership and management in the Ministry of Education Provincial, district and shura management and leadership Education Management Information System (EMIS) Procurement Payroll and record keeping Monitoring, evaluation and audit

{ 73 } { 82 } { 86 } { 91 } { 98 } { 101 }

PART C The way forward

Positive signs Conclusions and next step Recommendations

{ 103 } { 108 } { 117 }

ANNEXES

Annex 1. Sample of press and media reports on Education corruption allegations Annex 2. MoE staff, by Province, gender, teaching, non-teaching. 1395 (2016) Annex 3. Private Schools by Type and Province, 1395 (2016) Annex 4. Comparative enrollment, attendance and EMIS for selected ... ANNEX 5. Supreme Audit Office inspections of MoE for 1392, 1393

{ 129 } { 137 } { 139 } { 142 } { 159 }

Endnotes

{ 163 }

Ministry-wide Vulnerability to Corruption Assessment of the Ministry of Education

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

AAN ACCI AFN AGO ARTF AREU ASDP CBA CBE CBR CCNPP CCP CPD CDC DAARTT DANIDA DED DFID DoD DP EFA EMIS EQRA EQUIP ESA GAC GIZ GPE HR HRDB HRMIS IAM ICT IGO INEE INGO INSET MoE MoE-TED MoHE MoLSAMD MoPH MoWA

Afghan Analysts Network Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Afghani (Afghanistan currency) Attorney General Office Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund Afghan Research and Evaluation Unit

Afghan Skills Development Program Capacity Building Activity Community Based Education Capacity Building for Results Citizens' Charter National Priority Program Citizens' Charter Program Continuing Professional Development Community Development Council Danish Assistance to Afghan Rehabilitation and Technical Training Danish International Development Agency District Education Department Department for International Development (UK) Department of Defense (US) Development Partner Education For All Education Management and Information System Education Quality Reforms for Afghanistan (successor to EQUIP) Education Quality Improvement Program Education Sector Analysis Global Affairs Canada Deutsche Gesellschaft f?r Internationale Zusammenarbeit Global Partnership for Education Human Resources Human Resources Development Board Human Resources Management Information System

International Assistance Mission Information Communication Technology Inter-Governmental Organization Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies International Non-Governmental Organization In-Service Teacher Training Ministry of Education Ministry of Education Teacher Education Department Ministry of Higher Education Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs, Martyrs, and Disabled Ministry of Public Health Ministry of Womens' Affairs

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Ministry-wide Vulnerability to Corruption Assessment of the Ministry of Education

MVCA NAC NESP III

NGO NUFFIC

NUG OECD OS PED SAO SCA School shura

SIGAR TA TAF Tashkiel

TED TMI TTC TVET UNDP UNESCO UNICEF USAID VCA

Ministry-wide Vulnerability to Corruption Assessment Norwegian Afghanistan Committee National Education Strategic Plan III Non-Governmental Organization Netherlands Organization for International Cooperation in Higher Education National Unity Government Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Ostaz-Shegari ? the traditional craft apprenticeship system Provincial Education Department Supreme Audit Office Swedish Committee for Afghanistan A school shura refers to a school committee typically made up of a combination of parents, community religious leaders, elders and teachers Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction Technical Assistant ? individuals funded by DPs but working at MoE The Asia Foundation The Tashkiel represents the total number salaried positions that any ministry is permitted to appoint. It is determined by the Ministry of Finance and conveyed to respective ministries to implement Teacher Education Directorate Turquoise Mountain Institute Teacher Training Center Technical Vocational Education and Training United Nations Development Program United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization United Nations Children Emergency Fund United States Agency for International Development Vulnerability to Corruption Assessment

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Ministry-wide Vulnerability to Corruption Assessment of the Ministry of Education

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In July 2016, His Excellency Dr. Asadullah Hanif Balkhi, the Minister of Education, requested MEC to conduct a `Vulnerability to Corruption Assessment' of the Ministry of Education. This Ministry-wide Vulnerability to Corruption Assessment (MVCA) is the first comprehensive evaluation of corruption vulnerabilities across the entire Ministry.

MEC has examined, in detail, the vulnerabilities to corruption across the Ministry of Education (MoE). MEC has spoken with teachers, head teachers, school principals, school shura members, teacher educators, MoE officials on central, provincial and district levels, donors and other stakeholders, and with many parents and students. In total, MEC carried out 542 interviews and conducted 160 Focus Group Discussions: in Kabul, in the nine provinces of Badakhshan, Balkh, Faryab, Ghazni, Herat, Khost, Bamyan, Pansjhir and Nangarhar, and in 138 schools.

What Afghan school community members have described to MEC in their interviews about experience with corruption in education is devastating. It is vitally important to understand these perspectives and acknowledge the corrosive impact of corruption on the country. Using this analysis of the lived experience of service users will enable policymakers to take meaningful steps towards positive, effective and sustainable change.

Principal finding

MEC analyzed all the interviews according to the specific education corruption vulnerabilities identified. These vulnerabilities ranged from school-level issues, such as bribes to modify school certificates, through to Ministry-level issues such as corruption in school construction and in textbook distribution. One corruption vulnerability emerged as being the most serious ? the widespread, country-wide appointment of teachers on the basis of influence, or nepotism and bribery, not on the basis of merit. In short, teacher appointment is largely corrupted. This is the most damaging issue for the education of students in the country.

Thus, the heart of the corruption problems at MoE is not primarily issues like procurement corruption or ghost teachers. Rather, it is the children, families, teachers and other school community members who have lost the most from a dysfunctional education system that directly fails the citizens they are mandated to educate at the point of delivery. As a consequence, communities have comprehensively lost faith in the system.

"A suicide attack isn't the most dangerous thing for us, because a few people will die - Afghan mothers will have other children. It is the unprofessional and unknowledgeable teachers that are most dangerous for us because they kill the

future of Afghanistan."

Parent participant in Focus Group Discussion

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Ministry-wide Vulnerability to Corruption Assessment of the Ministry of Education

Other major findings

Such a large, complex Ministry will always be vulnerable to high levels of corruption. The Ministry is the largest public employer in the country, employing some 262,000 people, or 68 percent of government employment. As such, it inevitably becomes a prime target for those wishing to find positions for friends, relatives, colleagues and the children of colleagues. And it has long been unable to resist this pressure.

There are extreme levels of nepotistic influence. Unless this influence is shut down, or dramatically constrained, it is difficult to see how there will be any improvement in the corruption vulnerability of teachers' appointments.

The school curriculum is too large, leading to corruption vulnerabilities as teachers try to get ill-prepared students through the Kankor exam.

There appear to be very few reform-minded officials who are either willing or able to bring reforms within MoE.

The extreme disconnect between new graduates and teaching places is likely due, in large part, to corruption. Some 75 percent of the graduates of the Teacher Training Colleges are unable to get work as teachers.

Inspection, audit and oversight systems are ineffective or lacking.

Regarding the problems with EMIS, MEC compared school enrollment data and attendance data using the schools that it visited. EMIS data very closely matched enrollment data for the years 1392 to 1395, to within two percent. However, when actual attendance data was compared with EMIS data, EMIS data over-estimated actual attendance by 23 percent on average. While this figure may not be generalizable due to the modest sample size, it indicates large remaining corruption vulnerability.

Next step

MEC proposes that there be a discussion in the country ? at Cabinet level, at Education leadership level, and in provinces, districts and school communities ? to give broad backing to the MEC findings and to add detail to the major changes that MEC has proposed.

Recommendations

MEC makes 66 recommendations, broken down into the following ten categories:

1. Local responsibility. The principal recommendation is that school communities, not PEDs, should bear the primarily responsibility for selecting their teachers.

2. Institutional reforms. The principal recommendations concern the need to reduce the size and scope of the MoE, to make it more manageable and less vulnerable to corruption; to make TVET an autonomous entity outside MoE, to reform the mechanism for selecting teachers, and to reduce the size of the curriculum.

3. Successfully changing MoE organization. MEC recommends a two-fold approach: At local level, by moving swiftly to community-led appointment of teachers, and by sponsoring networks of reformers. And, centrally, by setting up a formal change structure, with full-time task force with strong Cabinet backing, and a clear metric by

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