Search Page

A member of the commission responsible for the examinations at the end of the first cycle of secondary (BEPC) and 50 other persons have been arrested. According to the police, they stole copies of the tests before the start of the exams. Using new technology, they swiftly copied the questions and put them on sale for students and parents in some areas of the country.

The Swedish labor minister listed on his resume on the government's website an M.B.A. taken at Fairfax University, which several US states listed as a so-called "degree mill". The Minister said he earned the degree through distance learning while he worked in the United States, but the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education rejected it as an illegitimate credential. "We would not rate a degree taken there," said the head of the Swedish department for evaluation of foreign qualifications.

The IIEP/UNESCO report "Corrupt schools, corrupt universities: What can be done" has identified private tuition as a major source of "unethical behavior" in India, observing that it has become a major industry, consuming a considerable amount of parents' money and pupils' time. Together with private tuitions, two other major problems that face the Indian education system are the manipulation of entrance test scores and teachers absenteeism.

Few people enter the teaching profession for the money. Teachers repeatedly describe it as "a vocation", widely recognized as a euphemism for poorly paid. But for a few enterprising teachers, the education system is rife with opportunities for personal financial gain. A report on corruption in education, published this week by UNESCO highlights ways in which heads, teachers and education officials can extort and embezzle school funds.

Nichols and Berliner demonstrate that high-stakes testing is wrong—intellectually, morally, and practically. Not only will it "not work" to improve education, it is already doing demonstrable harm. Bringing together many press accounts of the negative impact of high stakes testing, Nichols and Berliner provide convincing argument that the punitive measures accompanying this testing is destroying America's greatest invention, its public schools.

One third of the professors of Kragujevac University Law School, its dean and the Minister's assistant for Higher Education were arrested on corruption charges. Professors are accused of allowing students to pass exams without taking tests and selling degrees in exchange of bribes. This unprecedented corruption scandal casts doubts on the value of some law degrees and the qualification of some judges.