Corruption 'damaging education'

Bribery and corruption damage universities and schools across the world, according to a report for the UN's education wing, Unesco.
The study says education is plagued by rigged tendering processes, academic fraud and bribes over places and posts.

Academic fraud, such as fake degrees, is more common in the United States than in developing countries, it says.

The study of more than 60 countries says that in some, illegal use of funds meant for schools can be very high.

This loss between ministries and schools - or "leakage" as it is called - can be as much as 80% of the non-salary cash for schools.

Recent surveys have shown that ghost teachers on school payrolls represent 5% of the payroll in Honduras and 15% in Papua New Guinea, according to the survey.

Fake universities

In higher education, the problems centre mostly on bogus universities, degrees which can be bought rather than earned and fake accreditation or licensing of institutions.

The study says the number of fake universities on the internet offering bogus degrees rose from 200 to 800 between 2000 and 2004.

Officials in Ukraine had admitted that in 2005 most licensing or accreditation applications for the country's 175 private universities required some form of bribery for success.

Authors Jacques Hallak and Muriel Poisson paint a bleak picture of world education.

Such widespread corruption not only costs societies billions of dollars, it also seriously undermines the vital effort to provide education for all
Koïchiro Matsuura, director-general of Unesco

Their report says: "In most societies - rich and poor - the education sector is facing severe difficulties and crisis; financial constraints, weak management, low efficiency, wastage of resources, low quality of service delivery and lack of relevance as illustrated by high unemployment of graduates, among others".

The authors say the lack of integrity in education systems leads donors to question the worth of aid programmes.

The answer, they say, lies in strengthening regulatory systems and management as well as educating future generations about ethics to try to stamp out corruption.

They say there are good examples of countries which have overcome corruption problems, such as Azerbaijan, where fraud in university entrance exams was cut through the use of computer technology which stopped people altering marks.

In Uganda, they say "leakages" of funds in the transfer of money from the education ministry to schools was cut from 87% to 15%. This was achieved by giving more information to local communities and by publicising penalties taken against corrupt officials.

The director-general of Unesco, Koïchiro Matsuura, said the report was a call to action.

"Such widespread corruption not only costs societies billions of dollars, it also seriously undermines the vital effort to provide education for all.

"It prevents poorer parents from sending their children to school, robs schools and pupils of equipment, lowers teaching standards and thus education standards generally, and compromises the future of our youth. We cannot let it go unchecked."

Story from BBC NEWS:

"I'm trapped in Nigeria, and I need you to attend my college on-line in order for me to get out!"

Most colleges have dumbed down and lightweighted everything anyway over the last 25 years, since EVERYbody aims to go to college and most teens don't have the brains, the willpower, or the work ethic needed to learn anything too complicated.

...The blasphemy of suggesting that not everyone is capable of being a rocket scientist.

I think there's going to be (or needs to be, at least) a big discussion over the worth of higher education in relation to the professional world. I'll be honest, the stuff I learned in college did very little to help me get a job--I pretty much had to inherit a Pearl Jam website on my own time to get past the door.

Furthermore, as society pressures more and more people to go to college, college degrees will become less valuable through the law of supply and demand.

Let's all not forget the debt that many students have to go into to get this education.

Do all jobs really require a four-year college education? For example, an old neighbor of mine went to a more vocational technical school, and two years after that he was already working for a big high tech company.

Just some things to ponder.

These are all valid points, and the Department of Labor's own statistics backs up your argument. A Bachelors degree will not pay (on average) as much as a 2 year technical degree. Why? These people have hard skills, skills that can be utilized by a developed workforce. You wont see that on any University brochures.

A ticketed trade is the equivalent of a professional designation. But it's hard to beat a Bachelor's degree along with a professional designation to give you an entry level leg up on getting a good job. This also sets you up nicely for getting an MBA to ease your transition into upper level management is you desire.

All that said, I feel too many people put next to no thought into what type of career will make them satisfied. They put no thought into the career/life balance they want and look for fields of work accordingly.

I dunno know dude. I tend to think too many people get a degree in something that they like instead of something that will enable them to live how they want to. I don't dream about systems integration and engineering at night. I dream of going to see Pearl Jam in Europe, and have a 3-way some hot Euro-chicks, so I chose a career path that would enable me to do that. In my experience, it's a trade-off between work and life. I studied and sacrificed in high school and college and now it's paid off. But that's a reflection of how I wanted to live my adult life. Pick how you want to live and then work towards a viable long-term career that gets you there.

Well, I think both have to be taken into account. Kids need to know what jobs are the most in demand and be aware what it will take to do what they want. At the same time, people have to enjoy the job they do or else they will not be as productive. It's a tough balance to achieve.

I know a couple Aero Engineers. They don't seem to sleep much.

Everyone's not capable of seeing that they're being screwed.

Yeah. And let me add, with absolute metaphysical certitude, that many NASA engineers qualify as some of the most startlingly inept individuals I have ever had the privilege of insulting. The SpaceX guys are brilliant though. We should start a new thread, best careers for the 21st century. My money is on Arab linguist.

students to Earth...

we know.

*fixed, although Arabic will be important as well.

Web developer is another one--we could use some here in Boise, that's for sure.

Anything related in the health industry is going to be golden also.

"I got this idea for a school I would like to start, something called the Five Minute University. The idea is that in five minutes you learn what the average college graduate remembers five years after he or she is out of school."

- Father Guido Sarducci

If this is true I'm wasteing alot of cash.

Arabic > Spanish

Seriously man, I have struggled with this the last year. As a recent college graduate I can't even begin to fathom how I am going to start paying off my debts, and I had parental help so mine isn't nearly as much as many other of my friends and people my own age. I'm in film which gives me a variety of options (you'd be surprised), but choosing which path to take is a real struggle for me right now because it comes down to doing the type of work which I like and doing mediocre work for the studio system and making a good living.

I'm moving to New York for the summer to work, but I'll get back to you about this in a year.

Nah, must spanish speakers will be learning english anyway. And we cant complain, because english is fuckin easy compared to most languages.

student to earth

I just got a B.F.A

who is going to go out of their way to fake that? even to get into grad school? nah im not worried.

Oh definitely, there are a number of stupid engineers, which makes me wonder how they didn't flunk out of school. What sets engineers apart from the rest of the population is that they aren't deathly afraid of calculus.