Buying a Diploma Is Easy if You Can Pay Up

Mariam Malak, a 19-year-old from a village in southern Egypt, had near-perfect grades in high school and dreamed of becoming a doctor. But when the results of the nationwide graduation exam were released in July, the honor student was told she had scored zero, failing to answer a single question on all seven tests she took.

Malak has another theory: Her test papers were swapped for those of someone who paid a bribe or used connections to get a high score. The government says it analyzed the handwriting on the exam papers where she had gotten zeros and concluded she wrote them. Undeterred, Malak is seeking a court order for an independent handwriting review. “We are fighting this on behalf of all students who have suffered injustice in the Egyptian educational system,” says her lawyer, Ihab Ramzi. “This case is just an example of the rampant corruption inside the Ministry of Education.” The ministry didn’t respond to calls from Bloomberg.