China says it will introduce anti-graft lessons at schools

BEIJING - China plans to introduce lessons in schools outlining the "evil" of corruption with graft rife across the country and few signs of it getting better, state media reported on Friday.

The Ministry of Education has launched the campaign in big cities

and provinces like Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Zhejiang, Hubei and

Shaanxi, Xinhua news agency said.

The plan is to "vaccinate" the younger generation against

corruption as part of an ongoing nationwide anti-graft campaign, it

said.

 

The new education programme is aimed at protecting the young

from the "bad influence of certain corruptive concepts and

phenomena from the West".

 

"It is of vital importance for students of all levels to bear

anti-corruption in mind and fight against corruption," a ministry

of education document cited in the report said.

 

"The profound changes in international and domestic situations

have exposed young students to the surrounding corruptive concepts

and phenomena," it said.

 

It was not made clear at what level of schooling the classes

would be introduced.

 

Corruption is endemic in China with last year's state audit

uncovering 9,06 billion yuan (US$1,1 billion) of misappropriated

funds by government departments and 14,5 billion yuan by state

companies.

 

Graft in education in 2004 was also rife with 868 million yuan

worth of fees illegally collected by government-run universities

and 669 million yuan in scientific research funds misappropriated,

it showed.

 

- Nampa-AFP

 

The plan is to "vaccinate" the younger generation against

corruption as part of an ongoing nationwide anti-graft campaign, it

said.The new education programme is aimed at protecting the young

from the "bad influence of certain corruptive concepts and

phenomena from the West"."It is of vital importance for students of

all levels to bear anti-corruption in mind and fight against

corruption," a ministry of education document cited in the report

said."The profound changes in international and domestic situations

have exposed young students to the surrounding corruptive concepts

and phenomena," it said.It was not made clear at what level of

schooling the classes would be introduced.Corruption is endemic in

China with last year's state audit uncovering 9,06 billion yuan

(US$1,1 billion) of misappropriated funds by government departments

and 14,5 billion yuan by state companies.Graft in education in 2004

was also rife with 868 million yuan worth of fees illegally

collected by government-run universities and 669 million yuan in

scientific research funds misappropriated, it showed.- Nampa-AFP

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