Moral Integrity
Senior 6 · English (Languages)
Moral Integrity
Lesson 1 of 4
30 min
Let's begin
When something goes wrong in a school, a cooperative or a government office, someone usually says that "people must be held accountable". The word is used so often as a threat that we forget what it means. This lesson reads a feature article that treats accountability as a habit rather than a punishment, analyses how the writer persuades us, and then prepares a speech on what it means to be a responsible citizen.
A feature article written for this lesson. Mrs Mukandori and her school are imagined; the facts about national institutions are real.
1 At the end of every term, Mrs Mukandori pins three sheets of paper to the noticeboard outside the staffroom of the secondary school where she is treasurer of the parents' committee. The first lists every franc the committee received; the second, every franc it spent, with the receipts numbered; the third, what is left. Most parents never read them. That, she says, is not the point. "The point is that anyone could."
2 Accountability is one of those words that sound like a threat. We hear it when money has disappeared or a promise has been broken. Political scientists, however, describe it as having two parts. The first is answerability: the duty of anyone who holds power or resources on behalf of others to inform them, to explain what was done and to justify it. The second is enforcement: the real possibility that those who fail to answer, or answer badly, will face consequences. Answerability without enforcement is a ritual; enforcement without answerability is arbitrary.
3 Two years ago, Mrs Mukandori's sheets did not balance. A payment of 200,000 francs to a carpenter for repairing desks had no receipt. The committee could have quietly covered the gap, or blamed the carpenter, or found a scapegoat. Instead, the chairman read the problem aloud at the next general meeting. The carpenter was found. He had indeed been paid, and the receipt was in his coat pocket, washed twice and barely legible. The meeting laughed, then voted that in future no payment would be made without a receipt being issued on the spot.
4 The story is small, but it illustrates something large. Trust is not the absence of checking; it is the result of it. The parents trusted their committee more after the missing receipt than before, because they had seen how a mistake would be handled. Institutions are no different. Rwanda's Office of the Auditor General examines how public bodies use public money and reports to Parliament every year; the Office of the Ombudsman receives declarations of assets from public officials as well as complaints from citizens. These bodies exist not because every official is suspected, but because no official should be beyond question.
5 Accountability also runs in more than one direction. Officials answer upwards, to the institutions that oversee them, and outwards, to the citizens they serve. But citizens are accountable too: for the taxes they owe, for the questions they fail to ask and for the bribes they offer. A community that never reads the noticeboard cannot complain when the numbers are wrong.
6 "People think transparency is about catching thieves," Mrs Mukandori says. "Mostly, it is about catching mistakes before they become thefts."
Definition
Key terms
Paragraph 2's two-part definition can be drawn as a cycle. Each turn of the cycle renews the mandate, or withdraws it.
| Technique | Example | Effect on the reader |
|---|---|---|
| Frame narrative | The article opens and closes with Mrs Mukandori. | A real-seeming person makes an abstract idea human and memorable. |
| Anecdote as evidence | The washed receipt (paragraph 3) | A small, slightly comic story proves a large claim about trust. |
| Definition from authority | "Political scientists … describe it as having two parts." | Gives the argument an expert basis. |
| Antithesis | "Trust is not the absence of checking; it is the result of it." | Overturns a common belief in one balanced sentence. |
| Fact from institutions | The Auditor General reports to Parliament every year. | Connects the school story to the nation. |
| Turning the argument on the reader | "But citizens are accountable too …" | The reader cannot simply blame officials. |
Fact or opinion? A fact can be checked ("the Office of the Auditor General … reports to Parliament every year"). An opinion is a judgement ("Trust is not the absence of checking"). Good writers mix both, and good readers notice where the evidence stops and the judgement begins.
| Word (paragraph) | Word class | Meaning here | Related forms |
|---|---|---|---|
| ritual (2) | noun | an action repeated by habit, with no real effect | ritualistic (adj) |
| arbitrary (2) | adjective | based on personal choice or power, not on reason or rules | arbitrarily (adv), arbitrariness (n) |
| scapegoat (3) | noun | a person blamed for the faults of others | to scapegoat (v) |
| legible (3) | adjective | clear enough to be read | illegible (opposite), legibility (n) |
| oversee (5) | verb | watch and direct, to make sure work is done properly | oversight (n); do not confuse with overlook (fail to notice) |
You will give a three-minute speech at a school assembly with the title "Responsible citizenship begins at school". Aristotle, in his Rhetoric, named three ways a speaker persuades. Plan at least one moment for each.
| Appeal | It persuades through | Example line |
|---|---|---|
| Ethos | the speaker's credibility and character | "I have served as class treasurer for two years, and I have made mistakes with money myself." |
| Logos | reasoning and evidence | "If every class published its accounts, any error would be found within a term, not a year." |
| Pathos | the audience's feelings and values | "Think of the first-year student who pays for a club trip that never happens." |
Worked example
A model opening, analysed
"Good morning. Last term our class lost 15,000 francs. Nobody stole it. We simply did not write anything down. (pause) I was the treasurer. So this morning I am not here to accuse anyone; I am here to confess, and to propose."
Warning
Practice
Sources and credits
