The Perception of petty corruption and unethical behavior in secondary schools in Croatia

A research targeting perception of petty corruption and unethical behavior in Croatia has shown the presence of certain forms of corruption and unethical behaviour in secondary schools. The most prominent among them being, namely favouritism or discrimination of pupils ; pressures on teachers to improve poor and/or correct negative marks exerted by parents, pupils and other teachers ; pupils copying and cheating on tests ; teachers delegating administrative jobs and private errands to pupils. The respondents generally believe the motives for unethical and corruptive patterns of behaviour are: easier achievement of goals, mutual benefit within the teacher-pupil or teacher-parent relationship, knowledge that such behaviour will not be sanctioned In addition to those, research shows that pupils enrolled into certain accepted extracurricular activities, such as music and ballet schools or certain sports, are the ones who are most commonly given different treatment and are treated better in the City of Zagreb than in other counties, and in gymnasia when compared to other types of schools ; gift giving is most common at the end of the school year and it seems that it is more common in the more developed counties and in gymnasiua ; most intensive pressure on teachers to improve marks is coming from parents, while teachers do recommend private tutoring for their subjects. All the protagonists in the secondary school system are familiar with various forms of petty corruption and unethical behaviours, but only a negligible number decide to file a complaint.