The impact of aspects of education [level and type] on corruption in Zimbabwe
Date
2020-05
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Abstract
Zimbabwe spends much of its budget allocation on education, yet the nation faces
high levels of public sector corruption, raising the question of whether corruption is
immune to education. Corruption is detrimental to development and societal growth
whilst education, through human development, is supposed to aid growth. Therefore,
there is every need to assess whether corruption, maybe through the educational process
itself, and the products it produces, is dampening the potential returns to education in
Zimbabwe.
This paper explores the research question: What is the impact of different aspects
of education [level and type] on corruption among public service sector officials in
Zimbabwe? Identifying these relationships assists policymakers to make decisions
appropriate for developing ethical leaders through education and for sustainable
development. The study employed a qualitative research method to assess views and
experiences on the education and corruption nexus. Public sector officials in the Higher
and Tertiary Education and Finance and Economic Development sectors were engaged
via interviews, after purposive and snowball sampling had been administered. The results
show that there is a relationship between education type and level with perceptions of
education impacting corruption. This impact is evident in the following deficiencies;
there are no ethics or value-based teachings in the educational curriculum, people are
generally losing morals, ethics are not taught at a lower education level and the economic
challenges become an enabler of corruption. The recommendations include a remodeling
of the Zimbabwean academic curriculum to incorporate ethics or value teachings and
mandatory anti-corruption courses at universities.
Description
Undergraduate thesis submitted to the Department of Business Administration, Ashesi University, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, May 2020
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Undergraduate thesis
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Keywords
corruption perception, Zimbabwe, public sector, ethical values, values-based training