Over the past four years, the team of the Department of Education and Training Programs (NACP Integrity Office) has begun transforming school education on the basis of transparency and integrity, launched comprehensive work with young people to build zero tolerance to corruption, formed a comprehensive structure for training public officials on integrity, and developed a number of tools for the effective work of anti-corruption commissioners.
"Building a culture of integrity is one of the priorities of the National Agency. We have started cooperation with schools and higher education institutions (HEIs) because it is important to instill such values and knowledge from childhood. A number of online courses and training on integrity and anti-corruption have been developed for public servants, which are useful in their daily work," said Iaroslav Liubchenko, Acting Head of the NACP.
The Zero Tolerance to Corruption Strategy, developed in 2021, has determined the trajectory for every citizen to consciously know and choose virtuous strategies of behavior.
"Before the reboot, the NACP was not systematically engaged in educational and training work. In March 2020, we established the Department of Education and Training Programs. Our goal was to create zero tolerance for corruption among citizens and public officials, starting with young people. After all, the demand for justice has grown significantly over this time, and it is important to explain to citizens how to fight corruption and how to act in cases where they are demanding "gratitude" for receiving certain services. During this time, we have launched a number of interesting and useful projects, courses, and trainings for schoolchildren, students, educators, anti-corruption commissioners, and public officials, and the constant interest in these projects demonstrates the importance of the topic," said Iryna Chahovets, Head of the NACP Integrity Office.
Since 2021, a system of anti-corruption education has been introduced in 16 educational institutions across Ukraine as part of the Transparent School project.
In 2022, the NACP developed an anti-corruption course for ninth graders. Such courses are an effective tool for educating young people and forming the best models of social interaction. As a pilot, this course was presented in 16 educational institutions and demonstrated its effectiveness in the process of forming zero tolerance for corruption.
In 2023, the NACP team began building a Community of Educators united by the values of integrity. The community involves schools that strive to implement integrity in the educational process on a daily basis. Currently, there are 12 hubs that unite more than 380 schools. The Integrity Office has developed the "Educational Navigator", a guide of recommendations for administrations of secondary education institutions. It has now been presented as a pilot in five educational institutions and is being finalized.
The NACP experts joined the development of recommendations for transforming the educational environment on the basis of transparency and integrity for higher education institutions, including the management, compliance officers and students.
Another important project is the academic discipline "Anti-Corruption and Integrity" for 1st and 2nd year students of higher education institutions, which was developed by the Integrity Office team in 2023. This course was presented as a pilot in ten higher education institutions, where more than 800 students were involved.
In 2020, the basic course for teachers, "Transparent School: How to Build a Virtuous Environment" was launched. More than 33 thousand educators have already completed it.
An online course, "Teaching: What to Tell About Integrity in the Classroom, 6 Steps to Integrity: From Theory to Practice" was launched for teachers to help them understand in more detail what integrity is, how it relates to anti-corruption, and how to talk about it with students.
The NACP Integrity Office is also developing online courses to deepen its knowledge of anti-corruption and integrity. In 2022, the Study.nazk training platform was launched, which already has 24 online courses and more than 110 thousand registered users.
The course "Basics of Anti-Corruption for Everyone" allows anyone to learn more about integrity and anti-corruption, anti-corruption infrastructure, etc. Online courses on financial integrity and conflict of interest prevention have been developed: "Declare 2022", "Conflict of Interest Understood", "All About Anti-Corruption for Public Servants". In 2023, as part of the Integrity Power training program, the NACP Integrity Office team launched a series of eight new courses for civil servants, local government officials, police officers, judges, and MPs. In particular, these are the courses "Integrity in Government", "Integrity in Civil Service", "Integrity in Community", "Integrity in Police", "Integrity in Judiciary", and "Integrity in Lawmakers".
Six online courses for anti-corruption commissioners have been created and posted on the Study.NAZK training platform: "Inspect Professionally!", "Protecting the Rights of Whistleblowers", "Conflict of Interest: from Detection to Settlement", "Working with the Unified Whistleblower Reporting Portal", "Influence - Exposing!" and "Anti-Corruption Commissioner" (a basic course for commissioners on how to start organizing effective anti-corruption work).
A report on the NACP's performance for four years (2020-2023) is available at the link.
