‘Graft plagues edu system’
Doctors’ Test Answers Sold For $300,000, Cites Unesco Report
New Delhi: Corruption in the Indian education system is high, along with
those of Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia and host of African and Latin American
countries.
A new study by Unesco’s International Institute for Educational Planning
reveals that corruption afflicts the Indian education system-from teacher
absenteeism, private tuition by teachers to embezzlement/mismanagement of
school funds and even manipulation of entrance test for medicine,
engineering and computer science.
The report also mentions how post-dated cheques totalling more than
$300,000 were collected by people offering to sell answers for a nationwide
examination for physicians.
Talking about India, the report without specifying the state, says, “In
some places cheating is now so well established that when universities try
to resist, students protest and demand their traditional ‘right to cheat’.”
Ascribing corruption to a weak regulatory mechanism, the report
specifically mentions irrelevance and inconsistency of the codes, lack of
information on existing ones and bureaucratic delays as the reasons behind
it. But it makes it clear that in India, Bangladesh and Uganda there is a
concerted move to dismantle existing corrupt practices. In this regard,
organisations, like the Public Affairs Centre, Bangalore, have been lauded
for working towards bringing transparency.
The report, however, is based on data of 2002-03 and makes sweeping
generalisations. TNN