In the media

In spite of ongoing accusations of academic fraud and financial crimes against his family, a former law professor was nominated as the new justice minister. His wife, also a professor, was accused of allegedly falsifying material that would have helped their daughter enter university and obtain scholarships. In a protest against the government, opposition leaders shave their heads.

Politicians, senior education officials, headmasters, and businesspeople are taking advantage of their positions to line their pockets with state funds. According to a study, the acts of corruption in Thailand range from the embezzling of state funds, colluding to mark up prices of educational and school construction materials, as well as demanding bribes from parents who want their children to be enrolled in a particular school. Irresponsible officials and school directors steal about 30% of the total budget.

A Stanford sailing team leader was sentenced to two years probation for facilitating the admission of students to the university. He received $610,000 in exchange for recommendations for high school students he allegedly claimed to have recruited for his teams. In order to get their daughter admitted to Stanford, a Chinese family also paid $6.5 million to this official.

Since 2009, education and health have suffered cuts and multiple corruption scandals. Over the past decade, spending on education and culture has dropped from 32.9% of the central government budget to 19.9%. Students have no library, no computer classes, and requests for funding to replace asbestos seeping from a primary school’s roof in San Pedro Sula were declined by central and local authorities. ‘The teachers and parents raised $1,500 through fundraising events and collection tins at traffic lights to pay for repairs’ said a primary school teacher.

Anti-corruption advocacy group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has sued Delta State governor over poor funding of primary education in his state. His administration has received N7.8bn from Universal Basic Education Commission, apart from other funds from the Federal Government. Around 1,124 primary schools across the state are in a shambles, with very poor teaching facilities. Moreover, SERAP pointed out the case of a student who was sent home because her parents could not afford the illegal school fee of N900.

In order to fight corruption and discourage private schools to operate a cartel, the Supreme Court in Pakistan has not allowed an increase in school fees of more than 5% per year. Many directors of private schools took money from parents for security deposits and admission fees and earned profits on that money. An Auditor General report highlighted how in public schools some teachers received very good salaries, but they were not doing justice to what they receive while teachers in private schools earned far less amount but they perform better.

Exam malpractice is a highly organized "industry" between school proprietors, officials of the State Ministry of Education, officials of West African School Certificate examination, invigilators, machineries and the students themselves. According to a study, this is a result of poor implementation of examination rules, no fear of punishment, inadequate preparation for the exams, the disloyalty of examination body staff and students and parental threats. Many parents prefer to bribe the examiner rather than pay for extra lessons for their child, which may still not result in examination success.

Meet in Class is a start-up that wants to simplify tutoring: four students share the price for a tutoring course. According to its founder, in France, tutoring represents a market of 2.5 billion euros of recognized courses, but 80% of the courses are paid under the table. The prices of courses offered through a "classic" agency cost between 40 and 50 euros per hour, a price considered too expensive for parents

Most Vietnamese parents and students work with education agents when applying to the US and other foreign colleges and universities. The challenge for families is that these education agents charge exorbitant fees and misrepresent partner schools. They convince their clients of the need to ‘enhance’ an application using fraudulent documents, such as altered or fake transcripts and adviser-written statements of purpose.

The director of the Office of Anti-Corruption in Public Area 3, said that ten more north-eastern schools have been found with bogus students on their rolls, allegedly to facilitate the directors' transfer to well-known medium- and large-sized schools where parents are willing to pay admission bribes. This probe followed an investigation at Kham Sakae Saeng School in Nakhon Ratchasima where its new director found a list of 196 "ghost students" suspected of being put on the roll to get more government subsidies.