Dhaka: Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid on Thursday said drives will be conducted against corruption in the education sector with the help of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

"Corruption is all-pervasive as corrupt elements are everywhere in our society. We won't deny that there's no corruption in our sector. But we've reduced it," he said after a meeting with ACC Commissioner Nasir Uddin at the Secretariat.

Nahid said they with the help of the ACC have long been trying to bring corruption in the education sector to the zero level. "We won't spare anyone involved in corruption. As we aren't expert in the anti-corruption drive, we'll take ACC's help."

He also described as 'unethical' the practice of teachers to provide coaching instead of proper lessons in the classrooms and giving question papers to students before any examination. "Teachers are our assets. But some of them are resorting to the wrong path. The Education Ministry is working against them."

An anti-corruption workshop to be arranged jointly by the ACC and the Education Ministry will be held on July 30 at Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARD) in Comilla with the participation of students and their guardians from the grassroots level, Nahid said.
 He said the aim of the workshop is to ensure corruption-free quality education. "We'll discuss how to drive out corruption from the education sector."

Meanwhile, ACC Commissioner Nasir Uddin said they will try to know the thoughts of the grassroots people on corruption through the workshop. "We're going to arrange the workshop to know the opinions of students and their guardians in rural areas," he said.

He also said the national anti-graft body will facilitate the Education Ministry's works to root out corruption from the education sector.

A total of 12 schools from Comilla Sadar and eight others from Laksam upazila will attend the workshop.