Education is the cornerstone of success. The emphasis placed by a people and state on the educational system reflects this understanding. Try as we might, though, even with all our good intentionsthe views and beliefs inherent in the system are passed on to the next generation, attempts to level the playing field meet defeat.
There is of, course, no such thing as a value neutral educational process. Richard Shaull puts it succinctly, when he writes that education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate the integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity to it, or it becomes “the practice of freedom”, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of the world.
Of course, the education system can be used as a brainwashing tool. The Russian examples are the most blatant — from tsarist days of forced russification to Soviet communist indoctrination. It is to be noted with irony that Marxist theorists working in the freedom of Western groves of academe stressed that the western system is also doctrinaire. Paolo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the oppressed”, addressing South- and Latin American educational policy notes that while the final results of the education system cannot be imposed completely — a freethinker will see past the obvious lies, no matter the formal education level — a prescribed system makes it awfully difficult to bring about change from within.
The standardization of education is necessary — both from the pedagogic perspective as well as a systemic one. Degrees are awarded after the completion of a standardized program, graduates entering the work force can, in theory, provide prospective employers with a starting point, that this degree has provided the foundation of theory to be applied to practice. Which as we all know are too entirely different beasts.
Academic degrees do not travel well. Protecting the entrenched status quo is only part of the problem. A country with standards wants to make sure that the quality of education received elsewhere meets up with its own.
Many highly educated Estonians, Balts, Eastern Europeans who fled communism were forced to start all over because their credentials were not recognized. Professional protectionism comes into play as well. A Swedish trained dentist surely is qualified to practice in Canada. Not until (expensive) requalification. The same applies to Asian engineers and physicians. Many of whom are driving cabs in downtown Toronto. The monies and time involved in re-proving one’s credentials are considerable. It has been convincingly argued that Canada’s present shortage of willing and able medical professionals in all fields could be alleviated by easing the onus placed on immigrants qualified as MDs in India or elsewhere.
As a rule, though, these safeguards are in place to prevent charlatans from practicing. Quackery feasts on the naïve, snake-oil salesmen have been effectively, through bureaucratic paperwork requirements, banned from all fields except politics. To avoid charges of discrimination most nations have set up formal systems of recognition of degrees. Foremost, this benefits the educators themselves — professors can take their Ph.D. and travel, too. Most obvious in North America, such a system that provides mutual recognition of university degrees enables what Marxist thinkers would see as genuine spread of learning.
That utopia is threatened when academic degrees are of dubious value. Which is why some Universities, Colleges are recognized as following the established standard; others are not. The old argument of whether a degree from McGill trumps one from Concordia does not apply. The standards need to be deemed as equally applied. Weeding out mail-order BAs is only part of the process.
Beyond the ideological brqainwashing, education during Soviet times was a serious business. I recall being thoroughly impressed about the quality of teaching, the breadth of knowledge; even more awed by the capabilities, the free-thinking present everywhere among the young and the not-so-young when I first visited Estonia during Soviet occupation. The belief continues — Estonians take their education seriously. It is no surprise that Estonia’s return to the West has been spearheaded by the educated younger generation.
Seems that the mail-order degree phenomenom has now has hit Russia as well. According to Bryon MacWilliams, writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education on June 25th, Estonia has unilaterally withdrawn from an agreement with Russia, originally signed in 1998, that provides for a mutual recognition of university degrees.
The move applies to degrees issued since 1992 — Soviet-era degrees will still be recognized. (Gosh! Indoctrination is OK, free-market is not!) Apparently, the belief is that academic standards have slipped, and that corruption in both state and private institutions have rendered Russian diplomas to now be an unreliable measure of scholarship. Russia has seen a boom in private colleges and universities, to where the wealthy send their offspring rather than subject them to the state system. MacWilliams quotes an anonymous Estonian educrat who does not question the standard of education of a graduate from Moscow State University, but claims that private colleges have entirely different standards.
This of course, has set of yet another ripple in the tempest brewing in the alleged teapot of human rights violations. Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs was quick to respond, lamenting the measure as one which “infringes upon the interests… of a large number of Estonian citizens.” Curiously, this issue has not surfaced to any visible degree in the Estonian media.
Neither has it made waves elsewhere. One wonders what is Canada’s official stand on Russian degrees? Considering the tidal wave of immigrants from Russia, their very visible presence in the Greater Toronto area, are they working with the benefit of Soviet degrees? One surmises that the monies they came with are post-Soviet gains, however (ill?)acquired. Their education, though, is one which understands that there is no value-neutral system — and, it appears, Estonian administrators have come to the same conclusion. In this case, questioning credentials makes eminent sense.
Leader: A question of degrees (1)
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Interesting argument. Not sure, though, whether the important issue was a ddressed - that being one of arbitraty academic control. Hydreabad graduates driving taxi, or U of T grads flipping Big Macs, the situation is the same - contol by an elite.
Good to read that Estonia is taking steps towards admitting the flaws inherent in the "awarding" of graduate degrees.
Good to read that Estonia is taking steps towards admitting the flaws inherent in the "awarding" of graduate degrees.
Arvamus
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