In the media

Across the country, academies have been plagued by allegations of financial impropriety, conflicts of interest and even corruption. Unlike schools under local authority control, academies are responsible for their own financial management. Although this means that developing good corporate relations is essential, many have ended up without a proper framework for transparency and accountability. A 2014 report for parliament claimed that “conflicts of interest are common”, adding: “There is a broader sense that the academy system lacks transparency.”

There is a wide consensus among policymakers and practitioners that while access to education has improved significantly for many children in low- and middle-income countries, learning has not kept pace. Information is a key building block of a wide range of strategies that attempts to tackle weaknesses in service delivery and accountability at the school level, even where political systems disappoint at the national level.

The Education Cabinet Secretary has vowed to ensure that people using fake university degree papers are unearthed. Addressing principals at All Saints Cathedral Anglican in Nairobi, the education CS lashed out at those who want to assume leadership roles by irregularly acquiring academic qualifications, saying the ministry will rein in on academic miscreants in an effort to promote integrity. He urged the principals to be at the forefront in instilling virtues and challenged them to take responsibility for failures in their institutions.

Only a select number of school-level accountability initiatives in low- and middle-income countries have reduced corruption; improved managerial, parental, and teacher effort; and led to more efficient targeting of reforms and resources. These limited successes, too, appear to be context-specific and difficult to replicate. It is not enough to put information in the public domain and hope that it enhances accountability, especially since marginalized parents and communities have the least amount of time, resources, or influence to take up the reins of structural change. Information interventions need to consider carefully the audience, design, and presumed causal pathway to improved service delivery.

Lecturers in universities and colleges as well as teachers in public and private schools who are found guilty of abusing students risk having their degrees and diplomas cancelled by the Government to curb rampant abuse, especially of female learners. The Deputy Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development said there was an urgent need to curb the surge in sexual abuse of learners in schools, colleges and universities. Punishments such as imprisonment or expulsion from work was not enough since perpetrators always ended up teaching elsewhere using their diplomas or degrees.

Government officials are waging a twitter battle with parents who tweet questions from national tests being taken by primary pupils in England. The Department for Education wants any information on the content of Sats papers removed as pupils take the tests at various times over two weeks. Officials have been messaging parents since Monday asking them to remove tweets revealing question details. The DfE said it wanted to clamp down on cheating.

A mass exodus of teaching staff is looming at Likhubula Primary School in Chilomoni Township, Blantyre after 28 teachers asked for postings from the school following a stand-off that has arisen between the teachers and the surrounding community. In a letter, the teachers say they do not feel safe at their current workplace after the community openly accused them of misusing the school’s funds. The Chilomoni Ward Councilor accused the teachers of corruption when collecting funds from pupils and when handling other projects at the school.

An official report has disclosed the spread of financial and administrative corruption in Ministry of Education. The report contains the response provided by the Minister of Education at the request of His Highness the Premier Sheikh to the questions presented by lawmakers about the measures taken by Ministry to deal with corruption cases. He explained in the report that a huge number of cases related to forging of educational certificates and misappropriation of public funds have been referred to the Public Prosecution.

Before each school year, the Ministry of Education publishes a list of approved textbooks, from which teachers will choose the ones they will use in class. For the 2017-2018 school year, the list is 30 pages long. There is big money in school books, explains a publisher who wants to remain anonymous. "Getting on the list is the Holy Grail, and no holds are barred. Imagine a little, it's a huge market, more than 5 million students! Everyone wants their share of the pie: authors, publishers, printers or distributors, even if the methods they use are not always legal.”

As another school year begins in Afghanistan, the country continues to face insecurity, an epidemic of corruption within its education system and old customs that keep many students and qualified teachers away from classrooms. Violence and corruption are problems that can hardly be solved on grassroots level only. Increased violence forced more than 1,000 schools to shut their doors since 2016 and according to a report compiled by the country’s independent corruption monitor, corruption is “devastating” the education system and the country.