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Corruption in Iraq isn’t confined to the halls of government or big business deals, it pervades daily life. Reporter Susannah George takes a close look at corruption within the Iraqi educational system.

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LISA MULLINS: Iran’s western neighbor, Iraq, is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. And corruption in Iraq isn’t confined to government or big business. It pervades daily life. Municipal services, social services and education are all affected. The World’s Susannah George in Baghdad tells us about corruption in Iraq’s universities.

SUSANNAH GEORGE:  It’s just a week before class is set to begin at the University of Baghdad and the director of accreditation and student affairs sorts through stacks of envelopes at his desk. Inside each envelope is an admissions application. And within each application are documents that prove the applicants previous education. Hussein Khudhair Al Taie says he knows not all of these documents are real.

SPEAKING ARABIC

GEORGE: Al Taie says we’ve discovered a number of fake degrees submitted as part of a student’s application. So we’re aware that this problem exists and we see it all the time. Some of the degrees that Al Taie finds are obvious fakes, purchased on the black market. Others are less blatant and harder to detect. Muhammed Arif is a professor of information technology at the Technical College in Baghdad. He says that students with enough money and the right political connections can buy grades or simply not attend class and still pass.

SPEAKING ARABIC

MUHAMMED ARIF: People at my university issue degrees for money or pressure from personal contacts. Some students who are not qualified are allowed to join the university or can buy references.

GEORGE: Arif says he watched as one of his own students passed three levels of Computer Sciences without attending a single class.

SPEAKING ARABIC

ARIF: One day I had a young man in my class that claimed to be a student, but I told him I’ve never seen you before, you have never attended my classes. The student replied I’m okay, I can pass. I never saw him at one of my classes again so at the end of the year I gave him zero marks. Then after the summer holiday I received the roster for my second year computer science class and the young man’s name was there.

GEORGE: The same scenario played out with the student in three different classes and he graduated from the university. Arif worries it’s only a matter or time before other institutions find out what’s going on in Baghdad’s universities and call his own degrees, from Baghdad Technical College, into question. When teachers accept bribes for grades it also takes a toll on the students who are studying and attending classes. Mena Talal is 21 and she’s studying engineering at Baghdad’s al-Mansour College.

SPEAKING ARABIC

MENA TALAL: Students who pay money become just like the students who are smart and study hard to pass. It’s disappointing to the students who really work hard and it makes others think that you don’t need to work hard, all you need to do is pay money.

GEORGE: When asked what needs to be done to fix the system, the information technology professor Arif just shrugs his shoulders.

SPEAKING ARABIC

ARIF: We need the presence of law. Without law and order these kinds of things can happen all across Iraq.

HANA EDWAR: The white terror in Iraq is the corruption.

GEORGE: Hana Edwar is an ex-parliamentarian and leading Iraqi political figure. She now runs an NGO, the Al-Amal association that works with Iraqi youth. She says fake degrees may not seem like such a horrible thing, but there’s a slippery slope.

EDWAR: It is really the most dangerous risk for the Iraqi development. If we don’t face it and if we don’t try to eliminate this or to contain this, I think for the future it will be very, very difficult to contain this.

GEORGE:  Edwar and others say it’s already happening. When Iraq’s universities graduate students who have not earned their degrees, they’re creating a workforce founded on fraud that has the potential to slow all sectors of Iraqi development. For The World, I’m Susannah George in Baghdad.

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