“... natural responsibility means upholding values such as integrity, justice and compassion and above all living by that unwritten but absolute code of right over wrong, no matter what it is we are trying to achieve as individuals or as a nation.” (His Majesty The King, 2010)

The Anti-corruption Commission of Bhutan in the mission to prevent corruption also took a preemptive measure to build, sustain and support the institutions in upholding the values His Majesty The King referred to. One of the best ways to create a sustainable corruption free society is to inculcate strong values in our children. In order to connect directly to the youths, Integrity Club was piloted in four Bhutanese schools in 2017.

We were one of the schools where the Integrity Club was established. ACC provided training to the schools and funded a sum of Nu.20,000 as seed money to support the club activities.

The club was required to conduct pre and post surveys to assess the integrity of the students. The survey provided a lot of insights about the value system in the school. It assesses Anti-corruption awareness, Generosity, Gratitude, Integrity, Leadership, Ownership, Respect, Patriotism, Teamwork, and Trust. These components were measured using Likert scale.

The survey findings were always positive. However, my observations of the students' behaviour made me think about the survey findings. In order to validate the findings, I decided to conduct a social experiment. It was conducted without the knowledge of anybody, not even the Principal.

On 5th of April 2017, I dropped items like a Correction Pen, Textbooks, Data Cable, A Box of staples, Badge, and a Nu.10. These items were placed all over the school campus after the morning SUPW.

Nu.10 was first to vanish. Next day, I found the correction pen depleted of fluid in front of one of the classes. I relocated the badge in front of a class. Almost all the items vanished within a week except a data cable. I was expecting these items to be turned in to the TOD to be returned to the owners. These items were never returned nor did anyone claim responsibility.

A team led by Chief Integrity Promotion Officer visited the school on measurement and evaluation of the Integrity Club’s activities. They created awareness on corruption to the students besides reviewing the club. I cherry picked the social experiment for my presentation, secret till then, to the delegates and the students.

I received an unusual pin-drop silence from the audience. I presumed every slide in my presentation made someone in the audience uncomfortable. The audience also gave me a thunderous applause at the end of my presentation.

Thereafter, the number of lost items being turned in were on rise. In most of the morning assembly there used to be one or more lost-found items. One of the Integrity Club members told me that whenever he finds an item he feels it could be a social experiment.

It’s been observed that in most cases items are returned if it was not essential to the finder. So in the following year, I dropped one Cello Gripper pen in every classroom. The idea was to assess the integrity of the class by making it tempting. Yet, again none of the pens were returned.

I was confused. The pre and post integrity assessment surveys and the social experiments did not support each other. However, I could not shun the survey findings to be wrong when the sample size was large enough.

I had the opportunity to attend a Human Value workshop organized by ACC in their office building at Thimphu. Dr. Pema Thinley and Lopen Lungten Gyaltsho, who were the resource persons, said that as human beings our intentions are always right but only our competencies need to be developed.

The Human Value workshop has given me a lot of insights. Furthermore, It beautifully connects the dots; survey findings and social experiments. Finally, I concluded that the survey findings showed the intentions of the students while the social experiments validated the students’ competencies.

I would like to interpret “natural responsibility” to be the intentions and “upholding” to be the competencies. And the message is clear that we need to exhibit our intentions through our body, speech and mind.

How can we enhance the competencies of our students to uphold “natural responsibility”?