Corruption in Education 29

Research Paper

Final Draft

Corrupted Education in Kazakhstan

Academic Reading and Writing Course II

KIMEP

Instructor Elizabeth MacFarlane

22 April 2011

Acknowledgements

Contents

1. Chapter 1 Introduction page 4

2. Chapter 2 “Literature Interview” page 9

3 . Chapter 3 “Description of Results” page 13

4 . Chapter 4 “Analysis of Results” page 20

5 . Chapter 5 Conclusion page 26

6. Reference List page 28

7. Appendix page 29

Chapter 1 - Introduction

The issue of corruption is common in all countries all over the world. The other thing is that some of the states can successfully deal with this critical problem, while the other countries’ achievements are not as high as they could have been. “The patronage of D. Medeuova’s (Vice-President of Kazakh National Pedagogical University of name of Abay) rather influential relative from the higher echelons of power can explain the fact that already in her 25 years, she has become a doctor of sciences and a professor of the university. Yet traces of her master's thesis are absent in scientific departments of libraries in the territory of the country. At 26 years old, D. Medeuova held the post of the Vice-President on international contacts, and by 30 years of age she has headed the council of philosophers and political scientists. Also she promotes producing the similar pseudo-doctors, pseudo scholars ", - S. Adilbekov described (the candidate of political sciences at Kazakh National Pedagogical University of name of Abay). The tendency of buying grades, diplomas and completed master’s dissertations has appeared in Kazakhstan as a daily action (Kazakhstan Today, 2010,). Only by this scandalous fact it is obvious that the corruption within education in Kazakhstan exists and besides, it blossoms and smells in all its “beauty” today.

The theme of corruption is critical at all times; moreover, it is one of the major issues in Kazakhstan. The main reason I chose this topic is that I also had some bitter experience which has influenced my life completely. When I was studying at musical school I always took part in competitions of pianists. The majority of fair and objective decisions by the jury were at International competitions, because there were only foreigners in the jury who could not take any bribes from the participants, while in Kazakhstan, in republic competitions, participants could buy the prizes. People do not have to work hard all day and all night to achieve success. It is enough simply to pay one of the judges and the prize is in your hands while hardworking and fair people plough through twelve hours of practice a day. Such cases absolutely changed my intention of being a professional pianist because of my big disappointment in the musical sphere. Of course, corruption is not just limited to the sphere of education.

“Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, there has been a general increase in corruption, affecting many economic sectors” (Heyneman, Anderson, & Nuraliyeva, 2006, p.2), in the region of the former Soviet Union. On the chart below the corruption perception index is given. In this case the word ‘index’ is a “pool of pools”, representing the average scores which individual countries have been given by international businessman and financial journalists when polled in a variety of contexts. The annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), first released in 1995, is the best known of Transparency International’s tools. Transparency International is the global civil society organization leading the fight against corruption, brings people together in a powerful worldwide coalition to end the devastating impact of corruption on men, women and children around the world. TI’s mission is to create change towards a world free of corruption. It has been widely credited with putting TI and the issue of corruption on the international policy agenda. The CPI ranks more than 150 countries by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys. Republic of Kazakhstan had been included into research since 1999 (Transparency Kazakhstan, 2010).

Summary table of CPI for Kazakhstan 1999 to 2010

As it is shown on the table, the CPI in Kazakhstan is various in each year during the last decade. According to the last results which were taken from Transparency Kazakhstan, the CPI of Kazakhstan took the 105^th place in 2010 while Russian CPI was 154^th. This is a good result in comparison to the previous year’s results which was only 120^th place. Although, Kazakhstan has made some improvements in CPI during the last decade, still the results of CPI in Kazakhstan are not satisfactory.

In order to figure out the causes and solutions of corruption, first of all it is needed to give an explanation of the word “corruption”. “Corruption” is essentially a pejorative noun, closely associated with bad morality and dishonesty. This phenomenon is beyond the law and it destroys the political and lawful structure of the state. In this case, corruption within education has huge negative impacts on the society and its development. Furthermore, this fact promotes the reduction of the number of highly qualified professionals in all spheres. Corruption remains a serious problem in many countries and has prompted considerable research in recent years. Currently, all well-developed, especially Western countries have been able to cope with this issue. Of course this was not easily done, but took a fair amount of time. Kazakhstan is a very young state, only twenty years old, and it has only recently entered into the global economy. This country has many things to improve; it still needs the example of other developed countries, in order to modernize in the future. However, the existence of corruption is one of the most problematic areas in governmental and social affairs.

According to Hallak and Poisson (they have written their work called “Ethnics and corruption in Education”) “It has been observed that corruption increases transaction costs, reduces the efficiency and quality of services, distorts the decision-making process, and undermines social values” (2001). This research project will consider some consequences of people being engaged in corruption within education, particularly the effects on people who have suffered from it. Students who are used to giving bribes to their teachers will not become real professionals. Moreover, teachers who do not care about the social and educational development of the country cannot be called teachers, because teachers are like sculptors who create masterpieces. In this case, teachers teach and give students knowledge and help form them into individuals. Even more, it is very frightening to imagine that the surgeon who will perform your operation has bought his diploma. So, if universities produce unqualified specialists, how will they help to develop the country? Additionally, Kazakhstan will not be able to compete with other developed countries because of the lack of true specialists in various spheres. Moreover, corruption within education harms the social, political and economic development of the government.

This research report found out the main reasons that people engage in corruption. It asked why teachers take bribes and why students give bribes. In addition, it asked why people are not ashamed to admit that they bought their grades or even diplomas and why bribery is considered as a normal phenomenon. In order to find answers I went to the Department of Financial Police of Almaty which is leading the fight against corruption. An employee, Kim was asked about the measures which have been taken to prevent corruption within education, and additionally, statistics were collected and analyzed which were described according to the answers of twenty students from public and private universities in Kazakhstan. The students of some popular private and public universities were surveyed from February 24^th to March 13^th and they gave more insight about the educational system at their universities and experiences of corrupt teachers which they have faced. Furthermore, from March 1^st to 14^th in 2011, three people (including an officer of the Department of Financial Police of Almaty) were interviewed and asked to share their opinions and possible solutions to prevent corruption. In addition, two the interviews were semi-structured and the other interview was in a free format. First person was a teacher from Kazakh University of International Relations and World Languages, Damilya Alimbayeva. The second interviewee was an officer at the Department of Financial Police of Almaty, Abylgazy Zholamanov. The last interviewee was the professor of philosophy in public Kazakh University of Technology (he preferred not to tell his name). Hopefully, the methods above brought my own contribution to this problem and help to change people’s attitude towards corruption.

In conclusion, this research report will consider some accessible facts of corruption and examines some of the aspects of this issue and try to find the most feasible solutions to prevent or at least reduce the rate of corruption within education in Kazakhstan. The full report consists of five chapters. The second chapter, the Literature Review which contains information based on the work of various researchers and articles from the internet and focused on the main causes of corruption and also, partly looks at some taken measures which were taken in Georgia and tries to compare it with the situation in Kazakhstan. The third chapter, the Description of Results provides the results of the survey and interviews. The fourth chapter, the Analysis of Results found the answers for the main questions and analyzes the answers which were objectives of the whole project.

As for the whole report, the main aim to do research on this certain topic was to figure out the main the causes of corrupt students and teachers, and also to find out some more feasible solutions through the surveys, interviews and some written works of researchers.