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Education Sector Corruption in Ethiopia 113
A minority perceived that complaining would result in a personal security
risk. The same group of respondents expressed a wide range of views
as to the sincerity of government efforts to fight corruption in education,
with most considering the efforts to be sincere.
A law on charities and civil society organizations, passed by the parliament
in early 2009, includes a number of restrictive provisions that some
international actors view as limiting the role of civil society in demandside
accountability. 20
Survey responses from users also generated some interesting data.
Households revealed a strong perception that PTAs contribute to
accountability at the local level. This view is echoed in responses from
school-level staff, who expressed high confidence in school financial
records (as far as they go) and who report a strict regime of school
inspections.
Disciplinary procedures exist, and complaint mechanisms against
unfair measures are available and sometimes used. However, these mechanisms
seem to be used mainly by teachers seeking redress rather than by
community members.
Secondary sources suggest flaws in broader accountability mechanisms
within the teaching profession, including in the representation
of teachers’ interests. Teachers in Ethiopia have historically been represented
by the Ethiopian Teachers’ Association (ETA), founded in
1949. Following a long legal battle, a 2008 court ruling took away the
right of the ETA to its name and all of its assets, creating a different
organization with an identical name. Most teachers are now members
of this replacement organization, for which dues are deducted from
teachers’ salaries. The original ETA, now reorganized as the National
Teachers Association (NTA), considers the new ETA to be unduly
influenced by the government and has complained of discrimination
against its members. Such concerns have in turn been expressed internationally
through a range of bodies including the International Labour
Organization (ILO 2009).
Summary and Conclusions
This concluding section presents three levels of summary:
• An overview of the six functional areas identified, which lends itself to
a comparison of the general corruption risks in Ethiopia’s education
sector with those perceived to exist in other countries