In the media

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.

Thanks to the introduction of a new biometric census system, education authorities discovered the presence of 47000 fictitious students in public and private universities in the capital Conakry. Thanks to this information, the government will able to better equip its universities and teaching staff, by making sure that funds are directed where they are most needed. The Minister of Higher Education has indicated that this process may also pave the way for the introduction of an automated university access system.

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.

More than 160 students — nearly 30 percent of the student body — at D.C.’s celebrated Duke Ellington School of the Arts live outside the city and are not paying the tuition required of suburbanites who attend the District’s public schools, an internal investigation has found. The findings, which city officials announced Friday, come amid intensifying distrust of the District’s public schools, stoked by scandals involving inflated graduation rates and a former chancellor skirting enrolment rules for his daughter.

Angola's higher education and science minister has denounced officials’ fraudulent malpractice in student university entrance processes. The former dean of the medical faculty and associate professor at Katyavala Bwila University, Benguela, said the use of fraud, cronyism, and nepotism for a student to gain a place at university was a “widespread evil” which all of society should fight against. The minister said it was “unacceptable that those students with the best results are not selected for university entrance because of the negative influences of a number of senior university managers”.

Counterfeiting or purchasing of downright forged certificates, diplomas and degrees are some of the crudest forms of academic fraud in Zimbabwe. Experts say the employment of individuals with bogus credentials can be a public relations fiasco for both private companies and government. According to the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (ZIMSEC) spokesperson, the examinations body has been working with employers nationwide to verify academic credentials, uncovering a shocking number of workers with forged school and college certificates.

Despite the many requests from different organizations, universities keep secret their criteria for sorting each training course. The Human Rights Defender believes that the request of many trade unions for more transparency in the Parcoursup procedure will not undermine the "principles of the jury's sovereignty and the secrecy of its deliberations". He also recommends that the Minister of Higher Education make sure that candidates have all the information they need regarding the way their application is being processed.

Fenglan School violated regulations and used false advertising to enroll more students than its legal capacity. 400 students were found to be “missing” in the local student registration system. According to a student, the school asked them to sign an agreement saying that students would take the standardized exam as a local teenage resident not associated with the school. As a result, the students would not obtain graduation nor take the college admission exam. Some private schools would also bribe local education officials in order to obtain student registration for these unqualified students.

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

There have been several institutions located in the UK illegally operating under the title ‘university’. The ‘free universities’ like the Ragged University and Free University Brighton (FUB) offer courses generally sustained through free labor, which means they are unlikely to prove enduring. According to the Minister of immigration, the government had “struck off nearly 900 bogus colleges” which operate as portals for illegal immigrants. A Norwich couple was found guilty of fraudulently running the British Nutrition Council and the International Distance College, which defrauded around 900 individuals.