The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and teachers have held a consultative meeting to map out plans to effectively administer integrity clubs established by the Commission in schools. The meeting which attracted teachers from eight major public schools in Makeni was held at the Commission’s Conference Hall on 1st March, 2022.
Addressing the teachers who are tasked with coordinating the affairs of the clubs, ACC’s Northeast Office Manager, Mariama Navo, thanked them for the impressive work they are doing with the pupils in the clubs. She also commended principals of schools for allowing the clubs to operate in their different institutions.
The Manager further said that she held no reservation in touting the performance of selected ACC integrity club members during the commemoration of the International Anti-Corruption Day 2021, adding that the aims of the clubs could be undoubtedly fulfilled with strengthened collaboration and commitment.
‘We can do better with the pupils in the clubs if we all work as close partners, maximizing our collective efforts. Frankly, the Commission depends on you to groom our club members, achieve the moral pedestal to ward off corruption today and in future, when they assume positions of trust,’ the Manager urged, imploring the teachers to bring up actionable suggestions to score the best of the clubs.
Reading abridged news items during assembly in schools, a brainchild of Miss Navo, was proposed and mulled over for practical resolutions. The proposal was consensually accepted on the basis that it would serve as an opportunity to keep the club members and the rest of the schools abreast with ACC activities and achievements. ‘Children are transmitters of information once they are well informed,’ the Manager assured her audience.
The Teacher Coordinators of integrity clubs chose suitable days for the reading of ACC news stories in the school week. Mondays, Sundays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays were set aside, based on convenience, to broadcast news. Each piece of news will be written and posted to the Integrity Club WhatsApp group for teachers by ACC Public Education and Outreach Unit officers, from where they will be accessed and read out to the entire school during assembly.
Proposal on conducting an inter-club quiz and debating contest laced with drama and other creative performances at the end of the first quarter of the year was also raised and generally endorsed.
On behalf of the teachers, Moses Saffa Turay who represented Saint Joseph’s Senior Secondary School, declared that the meeting was indicative of the Commission’s inclusive approach to fight corruption. ‘We are motivated and committed to working with our different clubs in order to promote integrity in our schools. Reading of ACC news in our schools is clearly a useful channel to make the presence of the clubs felt in our schools.’
