Russia to Fight Corruption in Education

High school seniors attend a geometry class in a school in Moscow, Russia, Jan. 25, 2007. Russia's parliament on Friday Feb. 2, 2007 approved a plan to introduce a nationwide, standardized multiple choice test for high school seniors, the equivalent of the SAT, which would substitute for written and oral admission exams that now leave room for subjective grading, and bribes. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky) (Dmitry Lovetsky - AP)

MOSCOW -- When Yelena's son was preparing for admission exams for a top communications institute, school officials hinted he might not get in unless she offered them a little "reward."

She and her family scraped together the required $4,000 bribe, and her son was admitted.

"I knew that other parents would pay, and if I didn't do the same my son would not get in," said Yelena, a 52-year-old Muscovite who declined to give her last name out of fear of compromising her son's studies.

The payment of bribes for admission and grades at universities and professional institutes has become endemic in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. And critics worry that this form of corruption _ which police and experts say is a growing problem _ is further eroding the quality of a cash-strapped educational system that once ranked among the world's finest.

In an effort to curb these practices, Russia's parliament on Friday approved a plan to introduce a nationwide, standardized multiple choice test for high school seniors _ the equivalent of the SAT, which would substitute for written and oral admission exams that now leave room for subjective grading _ and bribes.

"Obviously, it should make it more objective _ there will be less influence on the part of university admission staff: you show your score and that's it," said Vladimir Yefimov, an official at the education committee in the State Duma, the parliament's lower house.

The testing requirement is expected to come into force in 2009.

The problem of corruption has apparently worsened at all levels of government since President Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000. The global anti-corruption group Transparency International estimates that the level of graft has jumped as much as sevenfold since 2001.

Experts say corruption penetrated education as a result of the country's post-Soviet economic crises, when salaries for professors and staff plummeted and often were paid late.

Wages remains dismally low at the state schools that make up most of Russia's higher educational system. Moscow State University, widely regarded as Russia's top school, pays average salaries of between $470 and $980 a month to professors, a spokeswoman said.

Universities provide free education to most students, so raising tuition for the few who pay would not solve the problem.

In the Soviet era, some students were able to get into good schools thanks to their parents' connections. But the system largely rewarded achievement, giving talented but underprivileged students access to top universities. Such students still have a chance in Putin's Russia, but complaints are rising that even the gifted are being forced to bribe their way into college.