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Corruption threatens good governance, sustainable development, democratic process and fair business environment. Young Citizen reporter caught students from Mapambano Tuition Center expressing their views in a debate whose motion is: teaching corruption subject from primary school level will help to eradicate corruption.

A report from the World Bank, "Africa Development Indicators 2010", has concluded that "quiet corruption" faced by common citizens is undermining the continent's development efforts and adversely affects inflows of investments.

Transparency International's 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) highlights the fatal link between poverty, failed institutions and graft. But other notable backsliders in the 2008 CPI indicate that the strength of oversight mechanisms is also at risk among the wealthiest. In low-income countries, rampant corruption jeopardizes the global fight against poverty, threatening to derail the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). According to TI's 2008 Global Corruption Report, unchecked levels of corruption would add US $50 billion (€35 billion) - or nearly half of annual global aid outlays – to the cost of achieving the MDG on water and sanitation.

The report from Transparency International evaluates the bribes versed to construction contracts in the world to over 300 billions of dollars. Some thirty billions are promised for the reconstruction of Iraq and around 10 billions of dollars are aimed to the reconstruction of South-East Asian countries hit by the tsunami last December.

Education minister Andrew Mulenga has stressed the need for accountability and transparency in the education sector to ensure benefits reach the intended target. The minister said at a joint annual review in Lusaka that there was need for accountability because the government was accountable to the people and education was the cornerstone for development.

Corruption in higher education is not a topic much discussed in academic circles. Yet, corruption in various manifestations is an element of higher education in many parts of the world. It is time to open a discussion of the meaning and scope of corruption since it seems to be an expanding phenomenon, especially in parts of the world facing severe economic hardships. Academic institutions in these countries come under extreme pressure to provide access and degrees to ensure success in difficult economic circumstances.

Students pay bribes to pass exams or gain admission to universities. Social costs can be high.

Funds allocated for teaching and public services are often embezzled in Sub-Saharan Africa by corrupt officers, to the detriment of development.

Apparently worried about the products of the different levels of education in the country and the attendant effects of examination malpractice and cultism on Nigerian youth and national development, the Federal Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the Exam Ethics Project (EEP), an educational non- governmental organisation last week held a two-day Education Stakeholders. governmental organisation last week held a two-day Education Stakeholders.