Corruption in education — India & China

Indulging in corrupt practices in China has become highly risky. The anti-corruption drive launched by Xi Jinping be it in the education sector, military or the party itself, hasn’t spared anybody What unseated the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from power in Karnataka? The widespread perception, well-grounded in reality, that it was indeed a “40% commission sarkar” in the state. Bribe-taking had permeated every office of government. I say this out of personal experience. Three years ago, I persuaded a philanthropic organisation to make a significant donation to the school my wife and I studied in. Located in Athani in North Karnataka, it bears her grandfather’s name because he had established it a century ago. We were keen to set up a new English-medium school in the same premises named after her late father. The school management agreed. However, for two long years, the agreement couldn’t be implemented because permission for renaming the school didn’t come from the relevant office of the education ministry. Reason: Babus wanted their palms greased. People in Karnataka know of far worse cases of corruption in the education system. Without paying bribes, one cannot set up a medical college or even get permission to increase the number of seats in education institutions. The situation is far worse in government-run universities. Persons without required qualifications and competence are appointed Vice Chancellors on payment of bribes running into crores. “How do they earn this money back in an education institution?” I asked a well-informed editor of a Kannada newspaper. “Simple,” he said. “The VC gets a commission from construction contracts and purchases for the university. Often, contractors and suppliers are asked to jack up prices, so the incremental commission is shared with higher authorities, including ministers. Even lecturers and professors have to pay bribes to be recruited in government colleges.” Other states in India also have a similar problem. Is it any wonder, then, that the standards of education in our public universities, where millions of students from poor and disadvantaged backgrounds study, are rock bottom? How does China fare in this regard? I got to know some broad facts from a friend, an Indian who has been teaching at a technology university in southern China. He said: “After completing my Ph D from another university, I have been teaching here for the past 20 years. I have witnessed a dramatic improvement under every parameter of the university education system in China. They now aspire to be the best in the world.” According to him, corruption had crept into the education sector in China after it opened up its economy to reforms and foreign investment in the early 1980s. As GDP began to grow at double-digit speed, consumerism boomed and people wanted to get rich quickly. There was fierce competition among students to enter good universities and land high-paying jobs. “Bribery manifested itself in the form of students giving expensive gifts to teachers in expectation of high marks in exams. There was also some degree of corruption in…