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

Addressing the event, MoET Deputy Minister of 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 corruption 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 premise for the sector’s advancement in the 21 st century.

However, there still exist shortcomings in teaching and learning quality, content and methodology as well as negative acts in education, Chien said.

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

To reach a knowledge-based economy, freedom in thinking and new ideas are necessary. However, this cannot be achieved unless enrolment is decided based on only students’ study results, the ambassador said.

It’s the students’ learning records that decide their enrolment, he stressed.

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

A UNDP representative stressed the link between education and development as education helps improve each individual’s capacity and opportunity.

Corruption is one of the obstacles to development and education, which is considered most vulnerable to corrupt acts.

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

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

A representative from the Australian embassy recommended Vietnam pass a law on information access 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 education establishments, from pre-school to tertiary education level, with over one million staff, teachers and 23 million pupils and students./.