South Korean Principal and Teachers Charged In Pay for Grades Scheme
This article makes me wonder how many “white envelopes” are being passed to teachers in South Korea? Is this just the tip of the iceberg?:
A case involving the principal and two teachers of a private girls’ high school in Gwangju was sent to prosecutors on charges of fabricating the school records of 25 students in order to help them gain admission to good colleges, police said Wednesday.
The three educators are suspected to have either raised the test scores of 12 students in the 11th grade and 13 students in the 12th grade or lied about their extracurricular activities.
Authorities did not say exactly how many students were aware of the plot, but hinted that “several” must have known because they were called into the teacher’s office and specifically asked what details the teachers could add to their documents to make them look better.
Some parents were said to have paid each teacher about 2 million won ($1,828) for the service, said police. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but I am a bit surprised by how cheap the bribe was.
Even with a glowing high school report card – you still have to pass the college entrance exam. So a lot of those parents were very likely wasting their money.
@Guitard, there are probably parents that pay to cheat on that test as well.
Certainly, there are cases of cheating on the college entrance exams. But I think bribing your way to a good score is a lot harder for the college entrance exam because you have to find the people administering the test and then get them all to agree to collude in a bribery. The parents know the high school teachers and principal – so they are much easier to target for a bribe.