Initiatives for the Primary and secondary school children to counter corruption through education.

Primary and secondary schools are key institutions for socializing young people to embrace their societies’ legal, moral, and social norms. Countries that include public integrity in their school curricula typically integrate related modules into existing courses and/ or provide support through dedicated materials that can be used at a time of the school’s choosing. Lessons on public integrity can be linked to existing social science, literature or language classes or linked to modules that aim to achieve social change, such as citizenship education, character education, peace education, or human rights education, but other approaches exist too. In some countries, the relevant public integrity bodies deliver tailored, on-request training on public integrity in interested schools. After-school or holiday camp programs delivered in cooperation with relevant public bodies or civil society organizations are another possibility.9 The precise contents that can be taught depend on the age of the pupils. The UNODC GRACE program recommends taking a building block approach in this regard. At the primary level (aged 6-12), children should be taught basic civic values, such as integrity, respect, acceptance, and fairness, and skills, such as empathy, teamwork, critical thinking, and conflict resolution. For secondary-level pupils (aged 13-18), contents can be more specific, including the causes and effects of corruption, strategies to resist it, and the importance of denouncing it. For this, students should first be given a clear understanding of core concepts such as corruption, integrity, or the rule of law to avoid simplistic discussions that do not adequately shed light on the many grey zones in this area. Impact can be maximized by linking theoretical contents to actual ethical dilemmas through participatory methods such as group discussions, role plays or games.