What we learn from Integrity Clubs and EduCheck

How the study was done

Participatory workshops in 27 Integrity Clubs in Bukavu and Uvira (373 pupil monitors, June–July 2021) and in 12 Kinshasa schools without a club (161 non-monitor pupils), interviews with 89 key stakeholders (focal teachers, head teachers and directors) and a literature review. Findings follow CERC’s “4E” approach: enable, encourage, engage, exemplify.

Findings, by the 4E approach

1. 1

   Enable — remove the barriers

   • Young people understand integrity well and want to be agents of change in their school and neighbourhood.
   • Learning is the first motivation: monitoring puts civic education into practice.
   • For the poorest, monitoring feels like a job: without transport or food allowances, they give up.
   • Fear is the strongest barrier: arrest for boys, sexual harassment for girls.
2. 2

   Encourage — make the effort worthwhile

   • Where the focal teacher and the head teacher back the club, the climate is positive and pupils grow in confidence.
   • CERC support seen as too rare (no visit to 27 schools for over a year) discouraged some clubs.
   • Many parents hold their children back, especially in the final year; those who attended an awareness session are more supportive.
3. 3

   Engage — involve the community

   • Monitors struggle to get information: project managers absent, no authorisation letter or badge.
   • Little interest from local authorities and the community (“Do you think you will change this country?”) is demotivating.
   • With no visible successes, the Bukavu monitors could not name a single success story.
4. 4

   Exemplify — make monitoring last

   • Some schools have built monitoring into daily life, for example checking teachers’ punctuality.
   • Nothing tracked what former monitors do or the long-term effect of their work.
   • Departures (studies, jobs, marriage for girls) threaten the continuity of the clubs.

Figures from the study

• 9 / 15new monitors rank learning new knowledge and skills as their main motivation.
• 6 / 15new monitors rank money first, especially in poorer areas.
• 14 / 15non-monitor pupils in Bukavu are excited about monitoring.
• 14monitor groups cite their teachers’ encouragement as a motivation.
• 23Integrity Clubs still active in South Kivu at the time of the study.
• 0mechanisms to track what former monitors do.

In their words

What we built into EduCheck

Each EduCheck feature answers a barrier the young people raised.

• No record of monitors’ work

  Every visit is recorded

  Monitoring visits, their answers and the problems they raise stay in EduCheck: each club’s work is visible and followed over time.

• No visible success

  Fixes are public

  Every problem stays on display until it is fixed, then a monitor verifies the fix and it is told in “Problems and Fixes”.

• Information hard to get

  Schools answer on the platform

  School managers receive their school’s problems and respond; the data are open to everyone on the dashboard.

• Fear and exposure

  Monitors are protected

  Monitors’ names are never shown (only “Monitor”) and their phone numbers stay private.

• Monitoring costs time and transport

  Monitoring starts at your own school

  A short questionnaire filled in on a phone at the club’s own school: no long trips, no costs.

• Isolated clubs

  A network of schools

  All schools followed are on the same map: clubs see what others do and compare results.

The study’s recommendations

1. Train monitors and teachers continuously, open training to non-monitors and organise exchanges between schools.
2. Meet local authorities, parents and the community to win their support; sensitise families.
3. Provide the field basics: badge and authorisation letter, transport, food, rain gear.
4. Ensure safety: risk analysis, a support plan known to all, visits in groups.
5. Better understand and prevent the sexual harassment of female monitors, with a safe reporting channel.
6. Share results in the media and with parents to show what the clubs achieve.

Where EduCheck follows schools today

• Uvira
  3 communes
• Bukavu
  3 communes
• Kinshasa
  6 communes

Schools of the study

The 39 schools of the study are followed in EduCheck: select a school to see its page.

Source: CERC report, annex 4. The totals given in the report (373 in South Kivu, 161 in Kinshasa) differ slightly from the sum of the school rows (373 and 154). “Institut la Promesse”: two schools in Bukavu have this name (Bagira and Kadutu).