Corruption and poor governance are both a cause of poverty and a barrier to overcoming it. In primary education this is particularly true. When there is a lack of transparency and accountability in the public school system and supplies go missing or parents face fees for services that are supposed to be free, it is the poor that suffer most.

A decade ago the structure of primary school administration in Africa started to change from a centralised bureaucracy to a more decentralised management approach. The change coincided with the Education for All target of achieving 100 per cent enrolment of school-age children by 2015. Global primary school enrolment is increasing, but there is real concern that the quality of education is jeopardised by poor management and corruption.

For the past three years Transparency International has been working in Cameroon and South Africa to identify where there are risks of corruption and where poor management leads to a breakdown in services. This is part of a larger programme to promote Transparency and Integrity in Service Delivery in Africa, (TISDA), which includes work in seven Sub-Saharan countries on education, health and water.