National Accountability Bureau (NAB) officials have started collecting evidence pertaining to alleged corruption and financial mismanagement of at least Rs 4 billion in the Prime Minister’s Education Reform Programme. The former prime minister had given at least Rs 4 billion to improve the conditions of 423 federal public educational institutions that come under the purview of the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) through the Prime Minister’s Education Reform Programme. Corruption and financial mismanagement has allegedly been done in funds allocated for paint jobs, furniture procurement, and construction and renovation projects.

The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) on Wednesday called for major transformation towards the fight against corruption, saying the noose around corruption must be tightened through pragmatic actions. “The NCCE is therefore raising up the fight against corruption through relentless intensive public and civic education towards changing our attitude, inject public accountability and personal responsibility across the country to help promote good governance”.

Only a select number of school-level accountability initiatives in low- and middle-income countries have reduced corruption; improved managerial, parental, and teacher effort; and led to more efficient targeting of reforms and resources. These limited successes, too, appear to be context-specific and difficult to replicate. It is not enough to put information in the public domain and hope that it enhances accountability, especially since marginalized parents and communities have the least amount of time, resources, or influence to take up the reins of structural change. Information interventions need to consider carefully the audience, design, and presumed causal pathway to improved service delivery.

There is a wide consensus among policymakers and practitioners that while access to education has improved significantly for many children in low- and middle-income countries, learning has not kept pace. Information is a key building block of a wide range of strategies that attempts to tackle weaknesses in service delivery and accountability at the school level, even where political systems disappoint at the national level.

Across the country, academies have been plagued by allegations of financial impropriety, conflicts of interest and even corruption. Unlike schools under local authority control, academies are responsible for their own financial management. Although this means that developing good corporate relations is essential, many have ended up without a proper framework for transparency and accountability. A 2014 report for parliament claimed that “conflicts of interest are common”, adding: “There is a broader sense that the academy system lacks transparency.”