Russia Could Soon Teach Schoolchildren How to Resist Corruption

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An employee counts Russian ruble banknotes at a private company's office, Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, December 17, 2014. Ilya Naymushin/Reuters

The Russian government is pushing to include the teaching of an "anti-corruption worldview" on the school curriculum.

Corruption is a top concern for Russians and a poll by the Levada Center earlier this year found that 76 percent of Russians believe that authorities are wholly or at least partly affected by it.

Several high-ranking officials have been detained over the last year in apparent corruption stings and now the Russian Ministry for Science and Education is considering introducing lessons on how to resist temptation.

The ministry has put forward for public discussion proposed changes that will make mandatory the inclusion of anti-corruption lessons in Russian schools as part of the subject of social sciences, presumably in modules about law. The lessons should promote an "anti-corruption standard of behavior." This could include the drafting of a special textbook on the subject.

Another one of the changes seeks to introduce a demand to teach students "the ability to resist ideologies of extremism, nationalism, xenophobia, discrimination of a social, religious, racial and national character."

Citizens have until the end of the month to submit suggestions and feedback to the suggestion, before it moves towards official approval.

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