Qualifications fraud threatens system
QUALIFICATIONS fraud posed a danger to the credibility of the SA’s education system, Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande said last week.
Nzimande issued the statement the following the resignation from Parliament of African National Congress (ANC) national executive committee member Pallo Jordan following reports that Jordan’s claim to a doctorate was false.
Nzimande said that unless employers, institutions and citizens felt confident that individuals had earned the qualifications that they purported to have, the entire system would lose legitimacy.
“Even the qualifications of those who have obtained them legitimately will be treated with suspicion, and this is unfair to all those who have genuinely worked to acquire such qualifications,” he said.
Nzimande said the South African Qualifications Authority had noted an increase in qualifications fraud. He said the authority was putting in place a number of processes to strengthen the security of its certificates and that the organisation was developing internal capacity to identify fraudulent foreign qualifications more effectively.
Earlier, Business Day reported an increasing prevalence in degree fraud, according to qualification verification agencies. The agencies say that although buying or selling fake qualification documents is a criminal offence, demand for and supply of these documents is on the rise.
Given SA’s unemployment, and the correlation between qualifications and employment opportunities, this trend may be expected. Danie Strydom, MD of the qualification-vetting group Qualification Verification Services, says forged degrees and diplomas are a rapidly growing problem as criminal syndicates branch out from identity document and passport fraud to meet demand.
He says that the only way to stem qualifications fraud is to prosecute each and every instance. All employers would also have to check the validity of degrees claimed by prospective staff.
Despite the high incidence of qualifications fraud, world standards for verification meant the system was largely foolproof, Strydom says.