Fraud eats into education system HANOI - An investigation by the Ministry of Education has uncovered many counterfeit university degrees and some academics say corruption is seriously undermining Vietnam's education system. The ministry conducted a review of 662 state employees who claimed they had received qualifications from six universities in Ho Chi Minh City. One in 10 of the certificates were fakes. Many forgeries purported to be degrees awarded by the Ho Chi Minh City University of Law, with the investigation revealing that 32 of 180 documents examined were bogus. Sharper scrutiny of qualifications at that university has reportedly resulted in 62 expulsions this year, with 12 of those involved government employees undergoing training. "Most of the culprits are senior officials who are either too busy or too lazy to study and 'treat their teachers nicely' in order to pass examinations," said Ha Dinh Duc, of Hanoi's University of Science. "They are worms eating the country - they have senior positions and serious responsibilities but no knowledge or expertise." He said it was a real threat to the country's development. A newspaper revealed that the qualifications of some administrators - most of them members of the communist party - were inadequate, with 65 per cent of managers at state-owned-enterprises unable to read a balance sheet. Graft is reportedly becoming a concern with regard to high school graduation certificates and university entrance examinations, with investigations revealing that qualifications and high marks are increasingly easy to buy. The local press reported that the number of students getting high grades has increased dramatically since the Government decided in 1996 to allow bright students to enter university without sitting entrance examinations. "The decision allowed students achieving average grades of 80 per cent over three consecutive years . . . [to] skip entrance examinations. In 1996 only 256 students nationwide met those conditions, but in 1998 the figure was 3,754," the report said. Diplomats and Vietnamese sources say even donor-funded overseas scholarships are subject to widespread nepotism, while anecdotal evidence suggests that sections of the flourishing private education sector are a sham, with students able to buy qualifications without attending classes. One student at a private college said it was common practice for teachers to offer examination papers for sale, allowing those with sufficient resources to avoid the disciplined hard work required of their less prosperous classmates. Police in Hanoi last month arrested one forger who confessed to having sold more than 200 fake degrees for about US$200 (HK$1,500) each. The officers also confiscated 62 bogus seals that were used to validate phoney university awards in civil engineering, finance and education. By Huw Watkin - South China Morning Post - June 10, 2000.