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On top of the world: the first ever Integrity Idol

This article was originally published by Apolitical. The Nepalese civil servant who quadrupled school pass rates The world’s first ever winner of Integrity Idol has spoken to Apolitical about his victory – and how he raised the pass rate of school pupils in his district from 14% to more than 60% in a single year. Modelled on TV talent shows like Pop Idol, Integrity Idol celebrates public servants who have displayed outstanding dedication to the common good. Now spreading to several countries, it started in Nepal in 2014, where the inaugural winner was District Education Officer Gyan Mani Nepal. Schools [...]

2016-06-15T00:00:00+00:0015th June 2016|

Idols we would like

By: Malati. This article was originally published by the Kathmandu Post. What do we do then? We could wait for the political willpower to clean up the system, but that might be a long wait On Sunday, the Chief District Officer of Gulmi, Pradeep Raj Kandel, was crowned the Integrity Idol of 2015. The award is conferred annually to a government official who reforms the institution he is working in and makes bureaucracy a little more efficient. In the districts he worked in, Kandel has been credited with making the process of finding documents in a government office fast and [...]

2016-01-16T00:00:00+00:0016th January 2016|

Integrity Gets Great Ratings

Integrity Gets Great Ratings How Nepalis harnessed the power of reality TV to strike a blow against corruption. BY BLAIR GLENCORSE, SUMAN PARAJULI. Originally published in Foreign Policy. To Gyan Mani Nepal, the newly appointed head of education in Panchthar, a small and beautiful corner of far eastern Nepal, the situation in his school district was a depressing reminder of his own youth. Teacher absenteeism was as high as 90 percent; those who did come to work often showed up drunk. Others shook principals down for bribes just to come to their jobs. Schools were regularly shut down by political [...]

2015-07-09T00:00:00+00:009th July 2015|

How I became Nepal’s first-ever ‘Integrity Idol’

By; Gyan Mani Nepal. This blog post was originally published on Oxfam America's The Politics of Poverty blog. A district education officer in rural Nepal sets a course for school reforms (and becomes a national celebrity along the way!) Nepal’s first Integrity Idol Awards were given in January 2014 to shine a spotlight on honest and industrious civil servants in a country where government officials are often associated with corruption and incompetence. Gyan Mani Nepal was chosen among five finalists from over 300 nominees. Their profiles were aired on national TV and posted on social media for people to vote via [...]

2015-03-23T00:00:00+00:0023rd March 2015|

Nepal bureaucrat clinches ‘Integrity Idol’ crown

By: AFP. This article was originally published by The Nation newspaper. Nepalese civil servant Gyan Mani Nepal doesn’t sing, dance or perform magic tricks - but all eyes were on the bespectacled bureaucrat on Sunday when he became the country’s first Integrity Idol. The online contest, which eschewed the glitz of popular television talent shows, saw nearly 10,000 people cast their votes via text message and Facebook in a bid to encourage honesty in the corruption-ridden Himalayan nation. An education official in eastern Panchthar district, Nepal won praise for his efforts to increase teacher attendance and boost student pass rates [...]

2015-01-12T00:00:00+00:0012th January 2015|
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