In the media

An ongoing initiative in Cameroon is helping to empower citizens and make their local governments, schools, and health centers accountable for better service delivery. This initiative has also been put in place to raise the awareness of citizens with regard to budgetary issues.

The Coalition for Transparency and Accountability in Education (COTAE) has released a procurement report on the educational system in the country. The objective of the project is to ensure that the procurement within the education sector is conducted and executed in a transparent and accountable fashion.

The global financial crisis has catalyzed increasing transparency and accountability regarding public finances, say aid experts, which has helped open up disclosures on aid-giving.

A survey conducted by Transparency International in Ghana, Madagascar, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Uganda covered different actors in the education system. The reports highlight the lack of budget information in schools and call for strengthened regulation and accountability, as well as greater involvement of school communities and parents. 

The Education Amendment Bill proposes the creation of an information matching programme which will allow the identification of teachers who are teaching without a current practicing certificate or authorization. In addition the Bill provides greater clarity to school boards of trustees on their roles, and increases flexibility around timing of board elections, the establishment of boards and alternative board constitutions.

In 1999, the Australian Federal Education Minister announced the establishment of the Australian Universities Quality Agency, or AUQA. AUQA has to audit universities as well as non-university institutions. There has been some criticism that AUQA "only looks at processes not outcomes" or that it "looks only at the processes intended to achieve quality and not at the quality itself". In 2006, AUQA commissioned an independent review of its activities.

According to a report elaborated by auditors from a nonprofit group based in Indiana, County principals have too much power and should be reined in to improve education in the school district. In order to avoid disparities, auditors have recommended limiting principal's powers and holding them for accountable for mistakes, as well as determining which decisions can be made at school level and which must be made by the central office.

There is a certain frustration at the Mpraeso Secondary School over the administration's attempts to improve accountability and transparency. The implementation of anti-corruption measures through the automation of accounting and administrative procedures as a means of checking and curbing corruption has been bogged by official apathy. The computerization programme, 'School Management Programme', that could have cost the school about ¢5 million a few months ago will now cost the school almost double that amount.

Sierra Leonean civil society activists are working to improve accountability. The National Accountability Group (NAG) – the local chapter of Transparency International – used a Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS) to find out what had happened to school fee subsidies and learning materials designated for a sample of 28 schools in a rural district. NAG's survey came after an earlier Ministry of Finance PETS revealed startling figures about education corruption. In 2002 researchers found that 45.1 percent of the funds for school fees subsidies were unaccounted for and that nearly 28 percent of teaching and learning materials had disappeared.

The Botswana College of Distance and Open Learning recently conducted its first external quality assurance audit on the Namibian College of Open Learning (Namcol) to determine whether the latter's system and procedures are in line with international best practices. The goal is to improve accountability and the promotion of high quality programme delivery.