The seventh annual anti-corruption dialogue opened on May 28 in Hanoi, drawing the participation of representatives of government agencies, the international donor community and development partners.

Addressing the event, MoET Deputy Minister Tran Quang Quy said the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) considers the fight against corruption a primary task and has carried out various activities to curb its influence in education.

Chief of the Office of the Central Steering Committee for Anti-Corruption Vu Tien Chien said the education and training sector has made important achievements, contributing to the country’s development and creating a basis for the sector’s advancement in the 21st century.

However, there still exist shortcomings in the quality of teaching and learning, content and methodology as well as other problems in education, Chien said.

According to Swedish Ambassador Rolf Bergman, corruption in education is a threat to sustainable development.

To create a knowledge-based economy, freedom in thinking and new ideas are necessary. However, this cannot be achieved unless enrolment is decided based only on academic merit. It is student performance alone that should determine enrolment, he stressed.

During two discussion sessions, “Advancements in ant-corruption in Vietnam” and “Anti-corruption in Education,” participants heard reports on developments since the sixth dialogue last November and the implementation of the national anti-corruption strategy until 2020, the UN anti-corruption convention and the project on fighting corruption in education and training.

A UNDP representative stressed that education is inextricably linked to development as it helps improve each individual’s capacity and their opportunities for advancement.

Corruption is a major obstacle to development and especially education, which is considered particularly vulnerable to it.

Representatives of the US and UK embassies and the UN agreed on the necessity of setting up a system to access corruption in education and training and identify other vulnerable sectors.

Delegates from the Asia Development Bank (ADB) and the Danish embassy highlighted the role of transparency, access to information and the media in anti-corruption effects.

A representative from the Australian embassy recommended that Vietnam pass a law on access to information and a stricter mechanism to prevent corruption.

Meanwhile a Swiss embassy representative suggested that the country soon promulgate regulations on the protection of whistle-blowers.

The education sector currently covers 40,000 educational establishments, from the pre-school to tertiary education level, with over one million staff and teachers and 23 million students.

Source: VNA/VOVNews