BSS, Dhaka :
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has installed 626 Satata Stores (integrity shops) at different secondary level educational institutions across the country with a view to increasing moral uprightness among schoolchildren.
“We have decided to set up Satata Stores at schools across the country as part of the National Integrity Strategy. Some 626 Satata Stores have already been set up aimed at spreading virtues among the schoolchildren,” said ACC Chairman Iqbal Mahmood.
“The stores keep on display with price tags goods and educational equipments school kids usually buy. The students can take items from the store as per their choice and put prices of those in the designated cash boxes on their own,” he said.
“We hope the integrity stores will help schoolchildren improve their sense of morality. And this is how they will learn practicing honesty from the school level,” he added.
ACC has a plan to expand its networks by setting up the stores in all the secondary level schools and madrashas across the country in phases.
The commission is now setting up, on pilot basis, two Satata Stores at two schools — one of boys and another of girls — in every district.
The local corruption prevention committees are monitoring the overall activities of the Satata Stores.
ACC has recently set up three Satata Stores at three schools in Narsingdi, Madaripur and Sylhet from where students can purchase any educational equipment and food items with money mentioned in the price tags as the stores have no salesmen. The initiative has been taken to pursue honesty among the students.
In another unique move, the ACC formed Satata Sangha (integrity units) at over 22,000 secondary schools and madrasas across the country to create awareness and hatred against corruption among the new generation to build a corruption-free nation.
The ACC has a plan to form Satata Sanghas at the educational institutions across the country in phases in line with its motto “Honesty is the best policy”.
