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88 Diagnosing Corruption in Ethiopia
Mapping of “downstream” corruption risks. Typical corruption risks
related to teacher management, recruitment, and service delivery entail
interaction between different groups, as follows:
• Teacher management typically involves practices between local officials,
head teachers, community leaders, PTAs, and teachers.
• Teacher recruitment typically involves practices between public officials
(in management) and teachers or other lower-level officials.
• Service delivery (that is, teaching) typically involves practice between
teachers and students.
In Ethiopia, the overwhelming bulk of expenditure in the education
sector is taken up by the recurrent salaries of teachers. As the sector has
expanded rapidly, significant risks of corrupt practices have risen and are
becoming established in relation to recruitment and management. The
field survey provides a picture of how the sector is functioning and the
risks related to typical corrupt practices.
Bribery, extortion, favoritism, or nepotism in selecting teachers for promotion,
upgrading, or grants—risk: high. Although teachers in Ethiopia are poorly
paid, they do have clearer promotion paths than other extension agents
(Pankhurst 2008). There are, however, considerable perceived distortions
to a related process of skills upgrading that forms part of a program of
enhancing teacher qualifications through in-service training during holiday
periods. Upgrading is perceived by some to be a relatively nontransparent
management process that enables managers to use their positions
to influence the selection of candidates. As one stakeholder stated,
“Hidden relationships are used in teacher upgrading, with officials at the
zonal or woreda level taking the first option on upgradation programs.”
Survey responses received during this study suggested that favoritism 12
and nepotism are major, though not necessarily dominant, factors affecting
upgrading. Out of 60 higher-education officials interviewed,
20 percent considered the upgrading process to be problematic. Out of
80 teachers, more than 50 percent noted that teacher upgrading is highly
influenced by political connections, and 27 percent said it is influenced
by relationships to committee members. Of school-level staff, 80 percent
expressed general dissatisfaction with the procedures for upgrading.
Bribery was also seen to influence upgrading opportunities, though to a
lesser degree, being cited as a factor by just 9 percent of respondents.