Gov’t warns public, private universities against admitting students with fake academic certificates

JUBA — South Sudan government has cautioned public and private universities against enrolling students with fake academic certificates.

This came after a report revealed that more than 400 fake certificates ranging from diplomas, degrees, and even PhDs are circulating in public institutions across the country.

“It has come to our notice that there so many certificates circulating around and some of them (students) have already been admitted with forged certificates in public universities,” said Awut Deng Achuil, South Sudan’s Minister of General Education during the ordinary session of the national admission committee on result of admission for 2019-2020 in Juba on Thursday.

Deng disclosed that most of the public universities have received forged certificates from applicants intending for enrollment in each academic year.

“It is not about me, it is about our people. If someone is working as a nurse at the hospital and you go to that hospital and you are being handled by such a person who is not professional medical personnel, it danger our lives,” Achuil said.

She stressed the need for a strong education system that will produce people who could deliver services to the citizens.

“This is something serious for this country, it has never happened in the past but we need to be vigilant to make sure that it does continue,” she added.

Gabriel Changson Chang, Minister of Higher Education, said the two ministries will work together to verify certificates and mark sheets submitted by applicants at the time of taking admission to universities.

“There are applicants who may have fake documents but they may not come through General or High Education because the two ministries have tools that deter the forged certificates,” Changson said.

Chang disclosed that his ministry has machines that verify the authenticity of certificates by reading the barcode of the documents

“We have forgery deterring machines at our ministry which is similar to the in General Education and these students have a very smart way of forging the certificates,” he added.