Since the inception of Corruption Watch in 2012, a large number of complaints forwarded to the organisation related to corruption in schools. In response, over the course of 2013 and with the support of the Heinrich Boll Foundation, Corruption Watch launched a campaign to increase reporting of and combat corruption in South Africa's schools.
Corruption Watch's Schools Campaign aims to raise awareness about the corruption reality in schools, while encouraging the public to report their concerns. The goal was to give power back to the public by informing them of their rights and thereby, to enable them to hold school leaders to account.
Responses to the campaign have been significant. According to Corruption Watch's latest annual report Taking Back Our Future complaints relating to corruption in schools make up almost half of the reports the organisation receives.
Reports indicate that principals, School Governing Body (SGB) members and to an extent, teachers, are manipulating and abusing the school system and processes to enrich themselves. Concerns reported ranged from abuse of public funds received for infrastructure maintenance and upgrading to sourcing of learning materials, funding of feeding schemes and more. A Mxit survey conducted by Corruption Watch on the subject also found that common forms of corruption in schools relate to the misuse of school finances and property, learners having to do favours in exchange for marks and nepotism in the appointment of staff. It also found that the selling of test and exam papers was a problem in Mpumalanga (23%), while the misuse of school money or property was prevalent in the Free State (30%) and the North West Province (31%).
Over the course of 2013, the Schools Campaign has developed support materials for learners, teachers, principals, SGBs and parents who want to detect and fight corruption in their schools. The campaign also made use of multimedia to raise awareness of the problem.
As a result of the campaign, Corruption Watch investigated and subsequently pressed criminal charges against a principal of a Soweto School. The case is ongoing and can be read about here.
In 2014, Corruption Watch will work to strengthen the campaign, and, in particular, build awareness that sexual harassment of pupils by teachers and 'sex for grades' are also forms of serious corruption.