By looking at statistics, one would think Ukraine is a well-educated nation. It has the eighth largest number of university students in the world, according to Dzerkalo Tyzhnia weekly.
It has more than 800 licensed universities and other higher education institutions. Yet in reality, its education sector is a pit of corruption rather than a thriving melting pot of research and innovations, where the students are milking cows. As a result, none of the nation’s universities feature in the world’s top 1,000 rankings, while its education ministry is a great subject for investigative journalists.
Before the summer university entry campaign kicks off in June, Kyiv Post decided to revisit some corruption scandals in education that have featured in the media in recent years.
Books (almost) worth their weight in gold
At least Hr 6 million ($737,000) of budget money was misused in book printing for the education sector in 2010-2011, according to the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine, an auditing body of the parliament.
The money mostly landed in the pockets of chains of intermediaries that facilitated book printing commissioned by the Education Ministry.
In several such cases, a small Kharkiv-based company Pobutelektrotehnika got a ministry commission, then had the books printed by a subcontractor, keeping between 60-85 percent of the money.
While the ministry told Kyiv Post that they “are checking the printing capacity of the publishing houses that received the state commission by recommendation of the Accounting chamber,” the books have now been printed at extortionate prices.
The cost of a Ukrainian language textbook for pupils of Polish background cost the taxpayers Hr 647 ($80). In comparison, the cost of a Ukrainian textbook for Russian speakers is Hr 21 ($2.6), or 30 times less.
There are even more shocking examples. Last year, the ministry paid Hr 1,400 ($175) per Polish literature book, according to Nashi Groshi investigative website.
Education Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk explained that the prices are high due to a limited edition of books for national minorities. But journalists have found that one of the co-authors of the Ukrainian textbook for Polish students is Olga Khoroshkovskaya, the mother of First Deputy Prime Minister Valery Khoroshkovsky, which fuels the controversy.
Moreover, officials have been known to print their literary works at the expense of the public. In particular, Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn got the state company Naukova Dumka to finance the printing of 2,000 copies of each of his two history books on Apr. 17th
Perhaps, he was inspired by President Viktor Yanukovych, who claimed in his 2011 income declaration to have received $2 million from a small Donetsk-based publishing house for his past and future works.
School repairs
To repair any state-owned building at public expense, a tender is required by law to find the cheapest bidder for the lowest price. But in reality, the bidders tend to be on the expensive side, providing for kickbacks that start at 10 percent of the cost of contact, that lend in pockets of officials, according to the accountant of one building company.
To repair one of the lecture halls in the National Shevchenko University will cost the budget nearly Hr 2 million ($250,000) this year. To complete construction of a public school in a village in Rivne region will cost Hr 36.5 million ($ 4.5 million). This bidder was picked despite the fact that there were others proposing to complete the works at the cost of Hr 24 and 25 million, Nashi Groshi found.
Moreover, some of the tenders are conducted retroactively, in an attempt to legitimize the works that have already been done. In one such case a tender was recently completed for school repairs worth Hr 2 million, when in effect the works were completed last summer, Nashi Groshi found.
Landing a spot in a university
Before Independent External Assessment (IEA) was introduced in Ukraine in 2008, admission to university was one of the most infamous ways for corrupt rectors and teachers to make money. The IEA changed that somewhat, but loopholes were found very soon by enterprising interested parties.
A headmaster of a school in Volyn region told Kyiv Post recently that a year or two after the IEA was introduced, the supposedly secret tests started to be available ahead of time.
“Supervisors from Lviv came to our school during IEA. Before leaving, one of them said that her husband takes part in developing tests. For $2,000 she promised to share questions and answers for a certain subject," the headmaster said on the condition of anonymity being afraid to lose her job.
The Ministry of Education said that such proposals might be simple scams as a lot of professors work on the tests and computer system picks only some of their work to the final version.
Vladimir Kovtunets, coordinator of the program for promotion of IEA in Ukraine, says that information leaks are impossible at the time of printing the tests because the process is fully automated, and under 7/24 video surveillance.
"There is much more risk when packets of test are taken to schools. It all depends on the integrity of a police officer, a school headmaster and supervisors," says Kovtunets. The process of unpacking tests are typically observed by 20-30 teachers and supervisors, the Volyn headmaster said.
But that does not mean there are no loopholes. After his appointment as a minister, Tabachnyk introduced a new system for university entry, where grade point average was counted in, opening up new money-making opportunities at schools.
There’s place for corruption during exams which require applicants to make some art works, says Olga Telyuk form NGO “Opora” : “The ways of evaluation such tasks are very nontransparent and parents often complain that they even can’t look at their child’s work after the exam.”
She also says that applicants can get higher grade points by winning the “Mala Akademia Nauk” competitions, works to which they prepare at home: “You can never now who really done this work. But winners get additional 30-50 grades on the exam,” says Olga Telyuk.
Perhaps, this explains why Ukraine’s education system currently ranks 72nd out of 139 countries in the World Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum, down from 55th spot just three years ago.
Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Abramovych can be reached at [email protected]
