Family ties worsen school woes in China, India

China and India both witnessed large-scale corruption case in higher education sector. In Jiangxi Province, 42 people were disciplined or punished for involvement in a cheating case in gaokao this year. Meanwhile, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is facing a serious political crisis caused by a massive exam-manipulating scandal. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Modi both aim to curb corruption and have introduced policies that are aimed at eliminating corruption. However, elimination of corruption requires society at large addressing the issue and individually and jointly working against the practice of corruption. The two countries, which differ in their political ideology and social setup, are hit hard by educational corruption, with the problem seemingly getting worse despite politicians' attempt to improve fairness in terms of distributing education opportunities. There are perhaps deeper social roots behind the persistent corruption in education sector. China and India are the most populous countries in the world. China has an adult literacy of about 92 percent for women and close to 97 percent for men, while these numbers are 50 percent and 75 percent in India. Close to half of the women in India can't read and write. The two countries graduate similar numbers of students, around 6 million in India and 7 million in China. The two countries value education to a great extent in their traditional family structure, but tradition may partly be blamed for widespread corruption in education sector. China and India have similar social values where familial and social expectations are very important. People base their identity on how their extended family perceives them. Family traditions and expectations are more important than personal desires and ambitions. For example, most students go to university and choose professions based on their parents' expectations and marry a partner chosen, or at least approved, by their parents. This parental approval or selection is based on how this alliance will enhance family's social standing. There may be apparent differences in how these dynamics work in China and India, but in both cases decisions are made based on family and social dynamics. Most developing economies are faced with the challenges of corruption. What makes it striking in China and India is the size of the economies and the deep rooted nature of corruption. It is so normalized that sometimes people don't even realize anything is wrong. I have seen examples in China where high school English teachers find substitutes who will take an exam in place of a student for money because they know their students can't pass otherwise. I have also known cases of high schools in India who collect money openly to bribe external examiners. In both cases, nobody seemed to have any ethical qualms about this. Policymakers in both countries are addressing the issue of corruption, but do not seem to have much support from the middle sections of the power structure in tackling it. Due to the lack of social security in both China and India, people depend on their families for support. This means that the family's investment in children becomes even greater, because they will rely on them for support in old age. Thus the incentives for educational corruption are increased, since the family's future depends on the kids' schooling. Corruption in education exposes young minds to the practice at an early age and normalizes it for them. When they grow up, they perpetuate it themselves, carrying on the cycle of corruption as just everyday business. Corruption in the judicial system makes it all the more impossible to root out corruption in school.