The National Anticorruption Center, together with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research and the National Agency for Curriculum and Assessment, have initiated the campaign of informing and raising awareness of the officials responsible for the education system, involved in the process of ensuring Baccalaureate exams 2021. This week, the officers of the NAC have had online collaboration with the presidents and secretaries of the BAC Centers, as well as the heads of educational departments from the north, center and south, during which different topics on the integrity rigors in the process of conducting the BAC were discussed.

The didactic staff is instructed and urged to show fairness, responsibility and integrity in the process of monitorization and assessment of the BAC. Also, the leaders of all levels are informed about the professional integrity standards and namely: compliance with the legal framework of gifts, of undue influence, conflicts of interest, as well as ways of whistleblowing corruption manifestations and liability for lack of integrity.

According to Ion Pruteanu, the head of the Anticorruption Education Directorate (AED) of the NAC, the aim of the information activities is cultivating and developing the components of prevention among the didactic staff. “The baccalaureate exams are the assessment of knowledge of every pupil, but also the teacher who instructed him/her during the years of education. Both parties are expecting a correct and objective evaluation of their efforts. That is why, everybody’ s goal, including the NAC, the Ministry of Education, the National Agency for Curriculum and Assessment is to make the examination process be held according to the highest standards of integrity and correctness, and not to be overshadowed by the attempts of bribery, undue influence or other unethical behavior”, mentioned Pruteanu.   

We precise, the National Anticorruption Center, together with the profile Ministry will have a permanent communication in the process of monitoring baccalaureate exams. The NAC officers will be delegated to the exam surveillance centers, where they will monitor the process via video cameras. The allowance to cheat, acceptance of undue gifts or non-declaration of gifts of politeness, as well as acceptance of some illicit rewards in exchange for some favors will lead to disciplinary sanctions, in the case of authorities it can lead to criminal liability.

In 2020, the baccalaureate exams were cancelled, and a year earlier there was a small number of whistleblowing disclosures regarding the deviations in the examination process – cases submitted for the resolution to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research. “The situation shows us that pupils, parents and teachers are aware that the time of corruption at the BAC has passed, it can be observed through the reduction of complaints about certain violations committed within the exams”, pointed out head of the AED of the NAC.