In the media

Student unions have urged the Ministry of Higher Education to conduct a transparent investigation into the allocation of foreign scholarships. Allegations of favoritism and nepotism have surfaced, with lower-performing students being accepted while top students are denied. Of the 300 scholarships allocated annually to Mauritanian students in Morocco, 191 would have been misappropriated.

Five professors at Hassan I University in Settat, Morocco, are under investigation after conversations on social media were leaked in which they were allegedly discussing the ‘sextortion’ of female students for extra credits. The academic community called for a Business Ethics module in the university staff training programmes that would stop promoting such abuses.

In Algeria the gendarmerie carried out ‘tens of arrests’ for fraud by officials, teachers and heads of some exam centres. Papers had been leaked via social networks, through more than 150 Facebook accounts, which had enabled the police to identify and arrest perpetrators. Meanwhile, 53 people have been arrested in a number of towns in Morocco for their alleged involvement in baccalauréat fraud. The arrests concerned 22 administrators of social network chat pages and sites for facilitating exam paper leaks and answers in return for money

A survey conducted by Transparency International in Ghana, Madagascar, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Uganda covered different actors in the education system. The reports highlight the lack of budget information in schools and call for strengthened regulation and accountability, as well as greater involvement of school communities and parents.