Abstract:

Corruption, and especially political corruption is deeply rooted in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) as it appears in various forms of political influence and interference, clientelism and patronage, bribery and abuse of a public position and power to personal gain. The latest available data from the Transparency International indicates that BiH was in 2020 in the group of countries with a highly perceived level of corruption, with the Corruption Perceptions Index of 35.

Corruption prevention is one of the complex ways to fight corruption. Hence, the role of the education system is reflected in helping and enabling younger generations to understand all forms and damage that corruption brings and to cope more successfully with pressures to take corrupt actions. Thus, they ought to interrupt the understanding of the transgenerational transmission of certain forms of corruption as an acceptable social phenomenon. The key personnel in this process are the teachers whose engagement is a fundamental to the success of the process.

The main purpose of the research is to examine whether the teachers are familiar with the forms and the extent of corruption and whether they are motivated and educated to become key players in the process.

The results of the survey which included 215 respondents - teachers in primary and secondary schools and representatives of institutions responsible for education indicate that more than four-fifths of respondents perceive corruption as a major problem in BiH society. Although there are differences in the perception of different actions as being corrupt (for example, less than half of the respondents believe that petty corruption such as receiving holiday gifts from pupils are in fact a form of corruption), most respondents identified different types of corruption in education. The results also indicate encouraging level of understanding of the importance of education in the fight against corruption among teachers. Hence, two thirds of the respondents believe that it necessary to include anti-corruption education in the curriculum. Most respondents believe that it is the obligation of the teachers to introduce anti-corruption education in the primary and secondary curriculum (63.7%), that they can make change in the fight against corruption within the institutions in which they work (59.5%) and that the introduction of anti-corruption education in the primary and secondary curriculum can influence changes in the society (61.4%). However, more than 50% of respondents rarely or never participate in anti-corruption trainings or education. In order for the education system to become the main instrument in the fight against corruption, the responsible ministries of education ought to start allocating more financial resources for the development and improvement of the anti-corruption education by providing incentives and anti-corruption trainings and education for teachers. Also, it is necessary to improve cooperation between key actors in this process.

Keywords:

Education, Corruption, Anti-corruption education, Bosnia and Herzegovina.