In the media

The Indonesian Anti-Corruption Commission (KPK) has arrested the Rector of the University of Lampung for allegedly receiving IDR5 billion (US$336,000) in bribes from the families of students who failed the university entrance exams known as the autonomous admissions scheme. According to KPK, the ‘autonomous channel’ exam conducted by universities is vulnerable to bribery due to a lack of transparency and specific guidelines from the Ministry of Education, leaving state universities unsupervised.

The vice-president of the Ceylon Teachers Union has accused the Northern Province of misleading the education administration into corruption and bribery for years. Governors had been informed on several occasions about malpractices and abuses that took place in primary schools and notorious girls’ schools in Jaffna without any action being taken.

A study by Transparency International Bangladesh found secondary-level education activities, including recruitment of teachers and inclusion in the monthly pay order, plagued with widespread corruption and irregularities. To be appointed as assistant headmaster or headmaster, one needs to pay Tk 5,000 - 1 lakh bribe or Tk 3.5-15 lakh to be included in the monthly pay order. The study also found a lack of accountability in different administrative works of education officials who did not attend office in time and regularly.

The Macao Public Prosecutor's Office is investigating a University of Macao administrative official and two other partners on corruption charges. They helped a contractor bid for the construction of residential colleges and falsified documents. The main suspect received bribes for projects valued at MOP 220 million (US$27.4 million).

A report conducted by the Global Corruption Barometer Asia found that nearly 50 per cent of those who paid bribes were asked to, while 32 per cent of those who used personal connections said they would not receive the service otherwise. With the highest bribery rate in the region, (39 per cent) India also has the highest rate of people using personal connections to access public services (46 per cent). 63 per cent of citizens think that if they report corruption, they will suffer retaliation. The daily practice of corruption and bribery remains extremely high, with almost one in five citizens paying a bribe to access key public services, such as health care or education.

In 2018 an audit conducted to review the Basic Education Community Schools program authorized by the Public Accounts Committee revealed over 2000 ghost schools on paper but no teacher on record. Several years have passed and new cases have been reported. Yet criminals continue to embezzle money to bribe government officials to allow fake teachers to keep fake jobs and usurp salaries of honest teachers and deserving students.

The police arrested an education officer for allegedly receiving a bribe of Rs 50,000 from a school uniform supplier in Shamli. According to the anti-corruption unit, the supplier of school uniforms for government schools lodged a complaint after the official had asked him to pay up as part of the deal to deliver uniforms to a school.

A social activist alleged that large-scale corruption was being carried out in the District Education Office and nine girls’ schools in Bazgarha, Kamarkhel are locked. Dozens of female teachers of these closed schools are still receiving salaries at home, but paying a considerable portion of their salaries as a bribe to specific frontmen of the District Education Office. According to local sources, this practice of mismanagement is continuing since 2015.

Police arrested eight persons who duped teacher-aspirants on the pretext of helping them crack the assistant teachers’ recruitment examination that was held to recruit 69,000 teachers in 2019. The aspirants gave Rs1 lakh as an advance while the remaining amount was to be given after declaration of results. Cash worth Rs 7.56 lakh, mark sheets of many aspirants, and other documents along with a diary containing details of candidates were recovered from the accused.

The Court convicted officials of the Ministry of Education and Public Security for involvement in fraud over the 2018 high school national exams, where over 200 students from three northern provinces of Hoa Binh, had their results modified in the high school exam. Two other people were jailed for paying bribes to alter exam scores. After the fraud was exposed, dozens of students dropped out of top universities and others were expelled after their marks were corrected.