In the media

Ghana. Kazakhstan. Poland: In many countries, teachers must bribe their way into teacher-training college. Some then collect their salaries and do not actually teach; when they do, they demand bribes for students to pass exams. "Textbook racket" is also a common practice.

Feeding schemes in our primary schools were implemented from 1994 as part of the Reconstruction and Development Programme. The main aim of the feeding schemes was to ensure that the basic nutritional needs of millions of malnourished South African children living in poverty were met. Meanwhile school feeding schemes that offer many of these children the only meal of their day are being threatened by bureaucratic inefficiencies and corrupt practises on the part of independent suppliers.

A petition has been sent to the Indian authorities pointing out that more than 5 lakh of primary school students in West Delhi have had no school lunch for two months; it denounces an inappropriate use of public resources.

According to the Ministry of Education and Sport, at least 952 teachers are "ghosts" or irregularly kept on the payroll. Investigations reveal that some head teachers have allowed some teachers to remain on the payroll irregularly. Given an average salary of sh250,000 per month per teacher, government has been paying sh238m monthly to ghost teachers.

Contractors hired to build schools in Mbale district have accused primary school management committees of demanding bribes before releasing funds under the school facilitation grant programme.

Low wages and lax standards have created a vicious cycle: teachers and school administrators demand bribes; parents feel they can't refuse.

The National Teachers institute (NTI) has said emphasis on exam certificates by higher institutions and employers of labour is responsible for examination malpractice in the nation's institutions of learning. It also fingered poor teaching and administration by school heads – registering unqualified students, facilitating impersonation, using classrooms rather than halls to conduct exams as contributing to the menace of examination malpractices.

An inspection of more than 100,000 schools has found that students have been charged 853 million yuan in illegal fees last year, Education Minister Zhou Ji said yesterday. He said 395 headmasters were among the 2,448 people fired or punished for imposing the fees. About 639 million yuan had been returned to parents after the inspections. Illegal charges for everything from school uniforms to field trips are rampant in many areas, prompting the government to launch a far-reaching clean-up campaign.

The children know that they can pay to get better marks. Other methods are also familiar such as sale of diplomas, « correction » of the mark report or embezzlement of school money by the teachers.

A school may demand that six teachers repay nearly $ 30,000 in pay raises they received after obtaining fake degrees from an online school.