Empowering Anti-Corruption Education at N.E.S.- Education Is the First Step for Change “Creating a Corruption-Free Nation”
Building a culture of integrity in society begins with its young people’s education. The knowledge, skills, and behaviors they acquire now will shape their country’s future and will help them uphold public integrity, which is essential for preventing corruption. Engaging the school system is critical to inspiring norms for public integrity at a young age.
N.E.S. believes that students, as agents of change, students of today and leaders of tomorrow, are not required to be successful in the academic field alone but also to have civic character, public integrity values, and attitudes that can change the nation for the better. Therefore, anti-corruption character education is the right solution for the younger generation to determine their identity and avoid negative behavior such as corruption.
Through the anti-corruption education program, it is hoped that the new generation will have a corruption-resilient character in the future. The ultimate goal of anti-corruption education at N.E.S. is to mold a personality aware of the threats posed by corruption to public wellbeing and state security, intolerant towards the manifestation of corruption, and seeking to eliminate the latter.
In the long run, the purpose of Anti-Corruption education is to build integrity values and develop the capacities necessary to form the civic position of pupils against corruption. It can include the following tasks:
- Introducing the corruption phenomenon to students: its definitions, essence or origin, types, forms, and consequences.
- Promoting students’ awareness and intolerance towards corrupt acts and behaviors.
- Demonstrating different methods, tools, and challenges in combating corruption.
- Contributing to the standards that are already included in the curriculum of general education from:
- integrity norms and values (honesty, transparency, respect for democratic values, responsibility for one’s own decisions and behavior, constant self-improvement, etc.)
- essential capacities of communication, analysis, observation, problem-solving, making decisions, constructively resolving conflicts and disagreements, leading a team, and other skills for greater civic participation.
The vision of this program was initially inspired by the 17th October Revolution that broke out in Lebanon, in 2019. The youth who were on streets during the revolution, not in their classrooms, however, chose the streets precisely because they viewed this as their only opportunity to carve out a different future for themselves in Lebanon. Moreover, this project derives from the 6th and 7th outcomes of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (2020-2025) in Lebanon. It was established to ensure that the Anti-Corruption Strategy Roadmap was effectively implemented.
Creating Anti-Corruption Logos and Posters
Check Album
The Lebanese Nation map, the colors of the flag, and real-life corruption situations serve as inspiration for the students as they work in groups to design anti-corruption logos and posters. They were given the opportunity to present their work to their classmates.
Case studies, talks, and panels on different real-life or exemplary corruption cases.
Check Album
These activities encourage students to:
- Introduce the corruption phenomenon and go over its different manifestations and definitions.
- Analyze corruption-related problem scenarios, then synthesize their findings.
- Suggest preventive strategies and solutions to fight against corruptive acts.
- Review and evaluate the conclusions they have reached.
- Apply newly acquired knowledge to practical real-life situations.
Anti-Corruption Role-Playing Activities
Check Album
To establish the scene, introduce a problem, and offer potential solutions, students are instructed to portray actual or exemplary real-life corruption situations, from bribery to fraud, cyberbullying, nepotism, embezzlement, etc. It is a strategy intended to strengthen pupils' creative, critical, and analytical thinking skills.
Students are encouraged to share their thoughts, opinions, and feelings towards corruptive acts. These activities will help students improve their ability to create and evaluate various anti-corruption strategies, as well as their awareness of and empathy for the feelings of others.
Team-building activities that uphold the values of integrity
Check Album
Participating in various team-building games with students helps them develop and improve their integrity values, including those related to cooperation, communication, honesty, trust, respect, sticking to rules, resilience, and ethical leadership, etc.
Let’s STOP Corruption!
Performing an Anti-Corruption Common Sign
Check Album
Along with their teachers, students designed and performed an anti-corruption common sign (Stopping the corruptive hand).
Common sign for corruption