Copyright© 2007 by School Services of California, Inc.

                                      Volume 20                   For Publication Date: August 3, 2007             No. 17

Growing Corruption in Education Systems 

Corruption is escalating in many education systems around the world according to a recent report by the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The report, titled Corrupt Schools, Corrupt Universities: What Can Be Done? discusses corruption in education.

The report provides results of research on ethics and corruption in education that the International Institute for Educational Planning, a division of UNESCO, has been conducting since 2001. The report asserts that national education systems in the developing world are the most vulnerable to corruption and that ethical violations are not confined to certain regions but are widespread.

According to Mark Bray, director of UNESCO, who wrote the foreword to the 300-plus page report, “for many observers, academic fraud is regarded as a serious threat to the integrity and reliability of certification in higher education, leading to skepticism as to the validity of results and suspicion about real performance.” For example, in some places in India, cheating is so well established that, when university officials attempted to eliminate opportunities for students to cheat, students protested and demanded their traditional “right to cheat.” This type of fraud is more prevalent in the United States than in developing countries. 

The report finds that the type of fraud typically found more in the United States in higher education is termed as “opportunities for corruption”—examination fraud, cheating, favoritism, bribes or gifts, diploma mills, plagiarism, and false credentials.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the report covered research from 2001-07 and witnessed an explosive growth in the availability of online information, adding to the opportunities for new kinds of fraud and corruption. A copy of the report can be found at the following website: www.unesco.org. 

            —Jamillah Moore, Ed.D