Looking away from forgery
it was published in al-rai on june 1, 2022, that the undersecretary of higher education, mr. subaih al-mukhaizeem stated that the number of forged academic certificates was 140 belonging to 133 people, who obtained them between 2015 and 2021.
the statement was issued during a discussion session with the integrity commission with the aim of enhancing integrity and transparency in the educational system through a visual presentation, which he presented.
he also outlined the efforts of the ministry of higher education towards developing and implementing mechanisms to combat forgery in university and professional degrees and setting objective criteria for equivalency.
regarding the cases of forged certificates, which were considered and are still being considered by kuwaiti courts, al mukhaizeem mentioned that the number of final verdicts issued in favor of the ministry was 477 related to certificates of students registered at universities in slovakia, india, the philippines, and the american university of athens and other cases are still being considered by the courts.
on the other hand, the acting secretary-general of the integrity commission, mohammad buzubar, affirmed that their meeting with the ministry represented part of kuwait’s strategy to enhance the integrity and combat corruption, which included projects aimed at enhancing integrity and transparency in the educational system, most notably following up on work on developing and implementing mechanisms to combat corruption, forgery in university and professional certificates and setting objective standards for their equivalency, in addition to initiatives concerned with integrating anti-corruption values into education, training education workers on building a culture of integrity and fighting corruption, reviewing curricula related to teaching professional ethics in universities and institutes, and reducing corruption risks in the educational sector.
what the higher education undersecretary has done is wonderful and should be thanked for a job well done.
the case really needed someone with his personal qualifications to address it. the number of forged certificate holders was and still is big.
the financial, professional, and political influence of these forgers was also an obstacle to prosecuting them and confronting their forgery, especially since representatives of a known quality were standing behind them, and they always opposed referring the cases of these forgers to the prosecution, while insisting that they remain in their positions, including educational, religious and educational.
these mps were almost of the same kind as those who demanded a ban on joy, the padel, and other innocent activities, arguing that they are not part of our customs or traditions as if they were saying that cheating, forgery, and counterfeiting are an integral part of our customs and traditions.
it seems, and i may be wrong, that efforts to detect fraudulent or non-accredited certificate holders have been suspended for a while!
if true, then it is a moral disaster.
