Unified State Exam fails corruption test.

MOSCOW, May 29 (By Itar-Tass World Service writer Lyudmila
Alexandrova) -- Russia's Unified State Exam (USE) has failed the
corruption test - bribe-taking has drifted from colleges and universities
to the school level. In the meantime, many institutions of higher learning
have proved quite successful in finding ever new ways of making money on
applicants and students.
On May 27 Moscow school graduates began to take unified state exams.
Some have only the hard-earned knowledge and cribs to rely on, while
others use the old-time practice of paying for the desired mark in
accordance with the unofficial price list. This year 840,000 school
graduates are to take the USE.
The deputy chairman of the State Duma's committee for education, Oleg
Smolin, has told GZT.RU that last year the average 'price' of one exam was
60,000 rubles - in exchange for the excellent mark, of course (90-100
points). Similar prices, according to the legislator, existed in the
republics of the Caucasus. In other regions the exams 'cost' half of that
amount. This year the rates are to go up.
The gist of the legislator's comment is this - the introduction of the
USE has caused corruption to grow, and not shrink - contrary to what the
USE's ardent advocates at the Ministry of Education have been saying all
the way. The main outlets trading the desirable results of examination
tests are the USE centers at schools.
The chief of the anti-corruption office of the Interior Ministry's
Economic Security Department, Alexander Blankov, believes that corruption
in education has not reduced even a little bit, but criminal schemes have
been changed, as the mechanism of securing admission to a college or
university has been reformed.
According to Interior Ministry sources the NEWSru.com website is
quoting last year the number of exposed instances of corruption in
education doubled as compared with 2008. The Department of Economic
Security predicts a surge in corruption during the USE season.
A tremendous amount of 'shadow cash payments' has moved to schools,
the deputy chief of the Society for the Protection of Consumers of
Education Services, Viktor Panin, says with certainty.
"Bureaucrats find ways of showing examination tests to students
beforehand, and teachers, helping them fill in the examination sheets
correctly," the daily Komsomolskaya Pravda quotes him a saying.
Another cash flow is pouring into the pockets of officials that are in
the position of issuing all sorts of "privilege certificates." As many as
153 categories of applicants have the right to be enrolled on preferential
terms.
It is pretty easy to join any of the 'privileged' groups in exchange
for a moderate 'voluntary donation', to get the minimum number of USE
points required and take a seat in a college auditorium. Last year, for
instance, some applicants secured admission by presenting certificates of
Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster victims. And nobody was surprised
to see that all of the applicants were born in 1992, while the Chernobyl
disaster occurred in 1986. Similar papers were presented by contenders
from areas located very far from Chernobyl.
And the third cash flow is running into the treasury of non-government
institutions of higher learning and commercial branches of government
colleges and universities that issue graduation diplomas without
overburdening students with knowledge.
According to the education services' consumers protection society,
corruption in education is estimated at about 5.5 billion dollars. Panin
said corruption in Russian education is at a critical point.
At the stage of admission to institutions of higher learning alone the
circulation of cash ranges 520,000 million dollars to 1.5 billion dollars
- this is about the amount of money Russians spend on bribes just for the
sake of ensuring their children get into the desired college or university.
As Blankov told a news conference in Moscow, 'academic bribe-takers'
have thought up another way of squeezing out cash - it is the no end of
contests that have begun go to be used for selecting future students.
Arranging for a certain applicant's admission through an internal
contest is simple and safe. Moreover, the selection of winners ends before
the entrance exams begin. The happy holders of the government
budget-financed seats become known as early as June.
Last month saw a high-profile scandal over the detention of senior
tutor at the Moscow State University's state governance department, Polina
Surina, 26, daughter of the department's dean Alexei Surin. The young lady
was caught red-handed on April 27 the moment she was taking a
35,000-dollar bribe.
Moscow State University Rector Viktor Sadovnichy in the middle of May
dismissed Alexei Surin from the position of the state governance
department's dean as his term of office expired. As for the dean's
daughter, Polina, she was fired as soon as the bribe row hit the headlines.
"Everybody pays," the daily Izvestia quotes a woman, whose daughter is
a student of one of the Moscow State University's prestigious departments.
Her daughter was enrolled last year. This year, when she was told about a
35,000-euro bribe, the woman shrugged indifferently, "Prices climb. Last
year we paid 25,000. My daughter won a republican contest, so she was
enrolled as early as April. Then she brought the results of the USE - the
score was way above the required. And even after that an anonymous
gentleman approached her and asked if any of her parents would take the
trouble of having a word with people at the dean's office. There we were
told outright - money down!"
Without the money, the woman suspects, they would have to admit her
daughter, of course, "but afterwards they would devise a way of either
expelling her or worming out the money they want."
Panin said that according to his sources, bribes paid and taken in
Russian colleges and universities range 22,000 rubles to half a million
rubles. Bribes are taken not just for guaranteed admission, but also for
good marks at exams.
Admission is often just the start of material investments into
education. Ahead of them students have ten examination sessions and all
sorts of yearly papers, essays and the diploma thesis.
"We have devised a formula that allows for calculating the costs of
passing an examination session," the daily Izvestia quotes the leader of
the Russian Union of Students, Alexei Kozak as saying. "It is about 20-30
percent of the admission costs. If the admission bribe was at about 30,000
euros, then the examination session will cost 6,000-10,000."
Trade in diploma certificates is another profitable line of business.
Blank forms of such documents are offered quite openly in Moscow metro
street underpasses. The certificate as such may cost 1,000 rubles to 1,000
dollars. But the properly registered ones, with entries made to all data
bases, are much more expensive - 20,000-70,000 dollars. A forged diploma
of a prestigious university may cost up to 180,000 dollars. The one who
wants to have a Cand. Sc. degree in some field of knowledge should be
ready to give away 20,000 dollars, and a Dr. Sc. title may cost
30,000-70,000. Every year the nation gets up to 20,000 phony candidates of
sciences and 5,000 doctors of sciences, says the Society for the
Protection of Consumers of Education Services.
An annual 500,000 forged diplomas are bought and sold in Russia. Over
the past few years chiefs of federal watchdogs, law enforcers and even
medical doctors and pharmacists are known to have presented forged
education certificates when applying for a job.
There were even some mayors. The mayor of the city of Partizansk, a
city in the Primorye Territory, Alexander Galushchenko, of the United
Russia party, was caught for presenting a forgery - a faked higher
economic education certificate.
And in 2008 the mayor of Arkhangelsk, Alexander Donskoi, was fined
70,000 rubles for using a forged diploma.

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